Syracuse University Libraries has launched a data purchase program to support the research needs of graduate students and faculty.

Researchers at SU can request specific datasets through the program, which is run through the SU Libraries’ Research and Scholarship department. This gives researchers access to organized data that is normally hard to obtain, said Scott Warren, associate dean for research excellence at SU Libraries.

“As the directions of scholarship continue to shift and evolve, we are seeing that research data is becoming a more important format or genre for a growing slice of the Syracuse University community to have,” said Warren. “The (SU) Libraries is trying to meet that need.”

Data can often cost five figures, and data sets can also have licensing restrictions or legal contracts that make the data hard to purchase, Warren said.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classified SU as a “Research 1,” or R1, institution. This top-level research ranking is given to universities that have spent at least $5 million on research and awarded at least 20 research or scholarship doctoral degrees. SU first earned the designation in 2015, and retained the ranking in 2018 and 2019.

SU Libraries’ data purchase effort aligns with its mission to grow campus research funding and retain SU’s R1 status, Warren said.

Anne Rauh, interim head of collections and research services at SU Libraries, helped organize the details of the new program. The program’s funding comes from SU Libraries’ regular collections budget, which has traditionally gone toward purchasing data for the broader campus, she said.

“[Graduate students] have very specific needs for the types of data that they would need to complete their projects,” Rauh said. “That’s what we’re trying to support through this effort.”

Research on campus is moving toward analysis of large sets of data, said Mirjavad Hashemi, president of SU’s Graduate Student Organization. The new program will help provide quality data that this research requires, he said.

“My research personally is under data, and I have had a lot of problems finding and accessing free datasets online,” said Hashemi.

Published on December 4, 2019 at 10:23 pm