CONNECTING DATA TO CONTENT: AGECON SEARCH AND DATAVERSE™
LINDA EELLS, AMY WEST AND JULIE KELLY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
PROBLEM
“AN OPEN SOURCE APPLICATION TO
PUBLISH, SHARE, REFERENCE, EXTRACT
AND ANALYZE RESEARCH DATA.”
AGECON SEARCH - AN OPEN ACCESS
REPOSITORY OF INTERNATIONAL APPLIED
ECONOMICS LITERATURE.
ACADEMIC SOCIETY PARTNER (AARES)
WANTS A HOST FOR RESEARCH DATA
ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR ARTICLES IN
AGECON SEARCH.
THEIR PUBLISHER DECLINES TO HOST THE
DATA, SO AGECON SEARCH AGREES TO
PURSUE A SOLUTION.

LOCAL BRANDING
 FREE - NO FEES
 STANDARD METADATA OPTIONS
 AGECON SEARCH SOFTWARE (DSPACE)
AND METADATA (MODIFIED DUBLIN
CORE) ARE NOT IDEAL FOR DATA
DESCRIPTION
 NO CENTRAL REPOSITORY CURRENTLY
EXISTS FOR ECONOMICS DATA
 MINIMAL LOCAL RESOURCES ARE
AVAILABLE - PRIMARILY STAFF TIME

LIKELY VOLUME OF DATA TO BE SHARED?
LOW RELATIVE TO POTENTIAL EFFORT
1.
AARES INSTANCE ESTABLISHED
IN DATAVERSE
2.
AARES AUTHORS (JOURNAL
ARTICLE AND CONFERENCE
PRESENTATION) SOLICITED FOR
THEIR DATA
 PERMANENT URLS
 NSF DATA MGMT PLAN TEMPLATE AVAILABLE
CONSIDERATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION
SOLUTION: HOSTED DATAVERSE™
 NO LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS (HOSTED
OPTION)

DATA RECORDS CAN BE LINKED TO RECORDS FOR
PAPERS IN AGECON SEARCH
 USE HOSTED SITE, OR DOWNLOAD AND HOST LOCALLY
 RANKS HIGHLY IN GOOGLE
 EASY TO USE – MINIMAL TECHNICAL SKILLS REQUIRED
 EXCELLENT SERVICE/SUPPORT – MAINTAINED BY THE
IQSS AT HARVARD
OUTCOME
•
2 AARES MEMBERS HAVE
•
•
•
DEPOSITED DATA
33 DOWNLOADS
VERSIONING UTLIIZED
CUSTOM METADATA (E.G. JEL
CODES FOR ECON)
UPCOMING ADDITIONAL SMALL-SCALE
DATAVERSES AT THE UMN
• MN LAND ECONOMICS
• DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED
•
ECONOMICS
UNDERGRADUATE HONORS THESES
MODEL FOR APPROACHING OTHER
SMALL ASSOCIATIONS NOT WELL
SERVED BY MAJOR VENDORS