Data management gets a boost
Data management in IITA got a boost with IITA’s participation in Research Data Alliance 15th Plenary for Interest Group on Agriculture Data (IGAD) online held on 9 April 2020.
IITA was asked to present on its efforts at promoting agricultural data. Institutional Data Manager Olatunbosun Obileye presented on the topic,” Improving data integrity by integrating crop bases with the institutional repository: Case of Cassavabase integration with CKAN at IITA”. Cassavabase is an integrated field breeding and genomics database which enables accelerated genetic gain in cassava. Meanwhile, CKAN is an open-source DMS (data management system) for powering data hubs and data portals and is what IITA uses for its institutional research repository.
Obileye highlighted the institute’s efforts at creating a one-stop shop for finding research data within the institution by using the integration of Cassavabase into CKAN. In his presentation, he indicated that only IITA data within Cassavabase is being harvested into the institutional data repository. The integration brings in digital object identifier (DOI) for the data and ensures data citation. He highlighted the importance of partnership at achieving this feat.
In another instance, the enhancement on IITA’s CKAN and the quality of data published by IITA, especially the assignment of DOI to experiment data while retaining IDs of data from Cassavabase, the use of annotated ontology and conformity with AGROVOC in published data was commended by some data leaders. Marie Angelique Laporte of Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT was glad to see adaptation of CKAN to maintain data quality while Medha Devare of IFPRI expressed satisfaction with the quality of IITA’s data in GARDIAN. GARDIAN is an online portal that provides access to agricultural research data produced by CGIAR Centers, their implementing partners, and beyond.
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) has over 10,000 members from 144 countries. RDA provides a neutral space where its members can come together to develop and adopt infrastructure that promotes data-sharing and data-driven research.
