Data Data: An Institutional Data Repository Analysis

Data Data: An Institutional Data Repository Analysis Michelle Zhai Iowa State University (ISU) MDLS 2025 Outline •Background: ISU institutional data repository •Analysis topics with discussion blocks: •Publication history and usage metrics •Dataset Fields of Research and sizes •Further Discussions 1 Background: ISU Research Data •R1 University, researchers: •Around 1,500 faculty •Over 4,000 graduate students •Postdocs and other staff scientists •Research Data Services unit •4 of us in the unit •Research data education and curation 2 DataShare: ISU Data repository •URL: datashare.iastate.edu •Platform: Figshare •Started operation in 2018 •620 datasets as of July 9, 2025 •Figshare API: •Documentation: docs.figshare.com •Example: retrieve dataset metadata https://api.figshare.com/v2/articles/{article_id} 3 Workflow and First Impressions •Workflow: •Figshare API retrieval (see Appendix: core API code) •Process and visualization in Python •(See Google Drive for stats shown in this presentation) •Based on API output as of 2025-10-14: •First dataset: 2018-06-08 •620 datasets (5.81 TB total) •498 authors •172,176 views 1,472,105 downloads 100 cites 4 Data Publication History •Figshare “timeline” •“posted”: "2024-08-12T20:04:13” •“firstOnline”: "2022-03-15T15:55:57” •Fiscal year history: •Use “firstOnline” information •ISU fiscal year: July 1st – June 30th •(Only 9 days into FY2026) 5 The 2 Big Groups •“Climate” (54 entries) •Global scans of temperature (1km res.) •70 GB or 100 GB each •4.21 TB (72.5%) •79,069 views 1,365,809 downloads 0 cite •“Lakeside” (363 entries) •Images of birds, 11 MB each •4 GB (0.05%) •15,249 views 41,059 downloads 0 cite •For reference, total metrics: •172,176 views 1,472,105 downloads 100 cites 6 Bulk of the Downloads: Climate Datasets 7 •Speculations: •Bots downloaded each files one by one •Multiple download attempts on bigger files •There are exceptions: •An example with few and small files Exclude the 2 Big Groups 8 Appendix: core API code •Full list on DataShare •https://api.figshare.com/v2/articles?institution=319&limit=700 •Metadata (‘url_public_api’) •https://api.figshare.com/v2/articles/{article_id} •Usage metrics •https://stats.figshare.com/iastate/total/views/article/{article_id} •https://stats.figshare.com/iastate/total/downloads/article/{article_id} •https://stats.figshare.com/iastate/total/cites/article/{article_id} 15