Dr. Olanrewaju Aluko in the Department of Engineering in the College of Innovation and Technology is the first UM-Flint faculty member to deposit a data set into Deep Blue Data, part of the University of Michigan’s institutional repository.
Dr. Aluko’s research is focused on the modeling and analysis of composite metal, polymer, and ceramic material. Specifically, he focuses on the structural matrix of this matter and how the properties of different alloys or combinations of these materials affect the stress and strain that they can withstand. As such his research is foundational to many other branches of materials science and engineering.
While working on his forthcoming publication “The Impact of the Interphase Thickness on the Elastic Properties of Unidirectional SiC/SiC Composites” in the journal Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, he needed to share his data with the journal editors and reviewers, and eventually with other researchers. On the advice of UM-Flint’s Office of Research, he turned to Deep Blue Data as a way to easily share the data. He liked the idea of using UM’s own repository and sees it as recognition for the institution that supports his work.
After initially submitting his data files to the repository, Joanna Thielen, the data curation specialist for science and engineering with Deep Blue, contacted him within a few days to help him meet the repository requirements. These requirements were aimed at making his data more accessible to other researchers even outside the engineering field through a “Read Me” document that gives more context to the data overall, “An engineer can easily look at my data and know what “Pyy” and “Pzz” mean, but Joanna met with me a few times to help me add more description about the data columns and the methodology and importance of my data so that others might understand better.” Dr. Aluko’s data can already be found in and downloaded from Deep Blue Data.
More and more research funding organizations are requiring detailed data management plans that include where the data will be stored and how it can be accessed because data is such a fundamental part of the research process. Dr. Aluko also sees this as being related to transparency, “Other researchers want to know that you didn’t fabricate the slope of your final graph.” As journals are unable to publish full datasets to accompany their articles, researchers are sharing their work through data repositories like Deep Blue.
Dr. Aluko feels very supported by the library not only because of his experience with Deep Blue, but also through the library’s agreements to subsidize article publishing charges (APCs) with several publishers, including IOP Publishing who publish Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering. “On my initial submission, I didn’t click the open access publishing option because I didn’t know about the library’s program. But on my second submission I changed to open access because the library is covering the cost fully.” He wishes more faculty knew about the APC discounts and the data services that Deep Blue offers.
If you are interested in depositing your data or scholarly work with Deep Blue, watch our Introduction to Deep Blue Documents and Data recorded webinar and contact them directly. And to find out more about open access publishing support, please contact Emily Newberry, Research and Scholarship Librarian. Also see our calendar of events for upcoming webinars related to data management, publishing, and copyright.
University of Michigan-Flint
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