Evolutions in Data Services: Forging Resiliency

This year’s theme is Evolutions in Data Services: Forging Resiliency. In the overlapping realms of data and information services, resiliency has many meanings. It is often used to speak about technical capabilities - an organization's ability to recover from disruptions, attacks, natural disasters, or other incidents. From an information services perspective, resiliency more commonly refers to the capability of staff and services to respond flexibly to evolving research and organizational landscapes that demand shifts in priorities, resource allocations, and departmental requirements. We encourage proposals that explore these or other concepts of resiliency within the data and data services space and how these ideas change or drive change alongside the rapidly evolving field of data services.

• How you are building/looking to build resilience and flexibility into the sharing, exchange, and use of data and services in your local context
• How you have been proactive in adapting a resilient and flexible organizational or service posture to the changes and challenges emerging in the data space
• Lessons you have learned from implementing new approaches or your experiences with navigating recent challenges related to resilience in local data practices, strategy, or services.
• How you are empowering and fostering researchers to build resilience in their data practices
• How data projects, services, or research are exploring issues related to resilience (or lack thereof) in higher education, industry, government, and other research data sectors, or
• Any other aspect of resiliency not addressed above

Presenters are invited to think about how they are reshaping existing research data practices, systems, services, and technologies as we move towards a more resilient data future. Preference will be given to proposals that critically engage research data systems, technologies, and practices that are traditionally considered neutral. The committee challenges presenters to think about these research data issues in the context of systems of oppression and exclusion (including but not limited to racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and classism), labor and hierarchies, and capitalism and profit models.

We welcome proposals from both first-time RDAP presenters and those who provide a follow up on a project previously presented at RDAP. We request that submitters limit themselves to one proposal per format type.

We also welcome submissions from employees of sponsors and will evaluate them using the same methods as other submissions. However, submissions will not be considered if they focus only on demonstrating or selling a sponsor’s specific product. 

Types of Proposals

• Presentation, 15 minutes
  The talk should be on original research, a project, or present a perspective. The RDAP Summit organizers will group the talk with others around a similar theme.
• Lightning Talk (pre-recorded with live Q&A), 5 minutes
  The lightning talk can be on any subject and can focus on a perspective, a work-in-progress, or a completed project. Lightning talks will be pre-recorded, with a live Q&A during the Summit.
• Poster
  Propose a poster to be presented virtually. Poster presenters will have the opportunity to chat one-on-one with RDAP Summit attendees through the conference platform.
• Discussion Panel, 45 minutes
  Propose a moderated 3 to 4 person panel that will engage in a live conversation with each other and with the RDAP Summit attendees on a topic. Proposal must include a moderator and three example questions that may be discussed.
• Workshop, 3 hours or less (including a short break)
  The workshop should be interactive, educational, and noncommercial. Education and Resources committee members are available to help facilitate a virtual, hands-on workshop if needed. Proposals should include at least one learning objective.

Evaluation Criteria

The committee will consider 1) the currency and relevance of the topic to the field, 2) appropriateness of the proposal for the session type, 3) impact of practices, conclusions, or recommendations (if applicable), 4) evidence of critical engagement & ethical research (if applicable), 5) organization and clarity, 6) applicability to the conference theme. Workshop proposals will also be evaluated based on their learning outcomes. Lightning talks can be shorter and more informal and the committee will evaluate them with that in mind.

All submissions will be masked with the author(s) name(s) and institutional affiliation(s) removed prior to review. To allow for anonymous masked review, author names, institutional affiliations, and address information must be absent in the summary section of the submission form. The Conference Planning Chairs reserve the right to edit summaries containing any author, institutional, location, or company names for the purpose of eliminating identifying information before sending the summary to reviewers. You are urged to anonymize your summary yourself, because the Conference Planning Chairs cannot guarantee the resulting quality if changes must be made after submission. One simple way of anonymizing the summary is replacing any identifying information such as institutional affiliation with the generic descriptor in brackets. For example, instead of Data University, use [institution] or [university].

Finally, we expect:

• Diverse participation in presentations or panels. Diversity includes - but is not limited to - race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, ability, role or specialty, disciplinary approach, or environment.
• All original research and projects are conducted using ethical practices, including informed consent and community participation in community-based research.
• If using presentation aids, presenters are expected to provide accessible materials or work with our accessibility coordinator to make their materials accessible prior to their presentation on the conference platform.

Rubric

Please view the full rubric used to evaluate the proposals for detailed evaluation criteria.

Timeline

• Proposals will be accepted through November 13, 2024
• Decisions will be sent on December 6, 2024
• Deadline to accept is December 20, 2024

Publication Opportunities

RDAP and the Journal of eScience Librarianship (JeSLIB) are pleased to continue their partnership for RDAP Summit 2025.

All RDAP Summit 2025 presenters are encouraged to submit proposals for a special issue in JeSLIB. Commentaries are also welcome for publication in JeSLIB from first time and veteran attendees.

JeSLIB is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes full-length papers, eScience in Action articles, reviews, commentaries, and video articles. For more information see JeSLIB’s Guidelines for Authors. 

Submit

Submissions require the contact information of all presenters, the proposal type, the title, summary (max 300 words) - a complete version and a de-identified copy, and a brief statement about what informed your involvement in this topic. Workshop proposals will require learning outcomes. Panel proposals will require three example questions that may be discussed.

Submission Form

More Information

You can view past RDAP programs. 

RDAP Summit is an independent conference through the RDAP Association, which provides accessible and affordable opportunities to connect with the research data support community.

Presenters will receive complimentary conference registration.

Send your questions to the RDAP Conference Chairs: rdapsummit@rdapassociation.org