Data Resources
Governance
The use of the the Data Resources is guided by the Policy Committee. The members of this committee are:
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Robert Gerrity (Library)
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Ernesto Livon-Grossman (Spanish Languages and Literature)
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Gabor Marth, Chair (Biology)
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Michael Russel (Lynch School of Education)
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Maya Tamir (Psychology)
The Policy Committee is an advocate for faculty research data needs, and will prioritize research data projects. If you have comments, questions or suggestions on Data Resources policies and priorities, please contact Barry Schaudt or one of the committee members.
Active Research Projects
We ask each research group for a short abstract of work being done using the Data Resources. These abstracts are published at:
www.bc.edu/offices/researchservices/dataresources/research.html.
Resources
The Data Resources are designed to support active research projects at Boston College. These resources provide the infrastructure and staff support for researchers to analyze, mine, visualize and/or publish and share data via the World Wide Web in creative ways. Please let us know what you want to do.
There are many aspects to research data, including:
- Data collection, including sensor data, data from studies, field work, or surveys, and data from simulations and mathematical models
- Data aggregation, including gathering from local, national and international database so that the data can be analyzed and/or published in other formats
- Data Analysis and Mining. Tools available include statistical packages, Matlab, and ArcGIS.
- Publication of data, including real-time analysis of data, via the Web
- Data sharing with access control to grant different users different rights to access or change the data.
The data resources currently consist of web and database servers, and 10 TB of disk space. Other resources such as Unix and Windows systems to run applications such as Matlab or statistical analysis in real-time will be added as needed. Batch (off-line) processing can be done on Boston College's Linux Cluster.
Software
To discuss your software needs, contact Barry Schaudt (schaudt@bc.edu, 617-552-0242).
Grant Support
If you are writing a grant, please contact Barry Schaudt (schaudt@bc.edu, 617-552-0254) to discuss the support that Research Services can provide.
Access to the Data Resources
The Data Resources are available to all faculty members at Boston College and their research groups. There is a simple application process.
Tape Backup
Home directories, databases, and web pages are backed up nightly. If a file, database, or web page in exists, there will be a copy on the backup system. For files, web pages and databases that exist and change, we save the current version, and, for 15 days, the previous version. We can restore either the current version or, if the requested is made within 15 days of the last change, the previous version. If a file/web page/database is deleted, then we can recover it for up to 30 days from the day it was deleted. Files in other locations are not backed up.
Archive
Boston College has a system to archive research data. The archive allows you to use a secure copy (scp) or secure ftp (sftp) client to transfer files the archive.
Policies/Proper Use Guidelines
Users of the Data Resources are expected abide by the Data Resources Policies which include Boston College's Computing Policies and Guideline.
Scheduled Downtimes
Downtimes are scheduled for the first Monday of every even month. For 2008, the schedule downtimes are February 3, April 6, June 2, August 4, October 6, and December 1. The scheduled downtimes will be used only if necessary, and will be used to perform routine maintenance and apply patches and upgrades. Emergency downtimes may be required.