Dear Professional Collaegues, I am contacting you about an important gap in the research data infrastructure—the absence of broad availability and use of data citation protocols. As one of the leaders in the global research enterprise, you know that there are many improvements that can and should be made to make research data more efficient and effective. Among those is to make research data activities better evaluated, recognized, and rewarded; research data easier to locate and share; and, generally, to improve the stewardship of data resources and the return on research support. Data citation standards and good practices can also form the basis for increased incentives, recognition, and rewards for research data activities that in many cases are currently lacking in all fields of research. There already has been considerable attention devoted to these issues, including reports and dedicated focus by various organizations and groups around the world. An important milestone in this area was the “Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles,” available online at http://www.force11.org/datacitation. As the preamble to those eight short consensus principles states, they are not meant as a blueprint for implementation of data citation policies and practices, but as high-level guidance for research organizations or domain areas to develop and then implement a data citation protocol. These principles integrated the emerging consensus of several different international groups working in the data citation arena. It is important for the country to take stock of what is being done in the data citation area and to begin formulating and adopting a formal data citation protocol for use by different discipline areas or actors in the research community. The Workshop would broaden focus, harmonize approaches, and raise unresolved issues. The Indian National CODATA Committee is therefore organizing a workshop on these issues, which will be held on 7th November, 2015 at Indian National Science Academy (INSA) . A copy of the brochure is attached for your information. We would be pleased and honored if you could contribute to the deliberations, so that the expected workshop outcomes reflected in the brochure are realized. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about that, once you have examined the attached documents. We hope you will be able to participate and look forward to your positive response. Best wishes, Usha Mujoo Munshi *Workshop Details: Please note that the Registration would be done on first cum first serve basis since the number of participants are limited to a maximum of 100.* *Workshop on* *Data Citation –* *Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards* *7th November, 2015 * *Organised by * *Indian Institute of Public Administration* *Indian National Science Academy* *& * *INFLIBNET * *JNU * *(Knowledge Partners) * *Background * Recent decades have seen an unprecedented explosion in the human capacity to acquire, store and manipulate data and information and to instantaneously communicate them globally, irrespective of location. Research has rapidly moved from an era of data scarcity, in which, with some exceptions, data have been small in volume and sparse in distribution, with statistical techniques optimised to extract information from such limited data, to one of abundance, in which an unprecedented storm of data offers major opportunities and profound challenges. Many of these opportunities and challenges arise from so-called ‘Big Data’. The challenges are to create infrastructures, methodologies, policies and practices that enable researchers to identify patterns and processes that have hitherto been beyond our capacity to resolve and to analyse and predict the behaviour of complex systems. Effective exploitation of Big Data depends fundamentally upon an international culture of 'Open Data' that involves sharing of data and their availability for re-use and re-purposing. It not only offers novel possibilities for commercial innovation, but also for greater involvement of a wider ranges of stakeholders and citizens in co-production of knowledge, and for deeper democratic engagement with the ways that knowledge is created and used. New possibilities and new challenges of the data explosion of recent decades is spreading, in what some experts quote as a 'second revolution of discovery'. At times of rapid development and change, a strategy must be a living document that is able to adapt to novel discoveries and approaches and the evolving needs of the international research and science community. *Workshop Title* *Data Big or small? Evolving Data Citation Protocols for Attribution in Education, Research and Policy Formulation* *International Workshop – Need and Objectives* There is a need for: *a framework of* i*nternational agreements, practices or standards* codified in the context of subject-specific conventions; *national policies* *and practices* for funding and incentivising research, and for physical and software infrastructure; and *institutional policies and practices *through which open data curation and support for researchers are managed. The proposed important international event on Data Citation, is part of world initiative led by *ICSU, CODATA - Data Citation Task Group*. The issue at hand focuses on an important gap in the research data infrastructure – the absence of broad availability and use of data citation protocols. In the global research enterprises, there are many improvements that can and should be made to make research data more efficient and effective. Among those is to make research data activities better evaluated, recognized, and rewarded; research data easier to locate and share; and, generally, to improve the stewardship of data resources and the return on research support. The lack of established practices for referring to portions or subsets of data has resulted in the complicating the problem of citing online data. As funding sources for research in general have begun to require data management plans as part of their selection and approval processes, it is important that the necessary standards, incentives, and convictions to support data citation, preservation , and accessibility be put into place. There are, in fact a number of initiatives in different organizations, countries, and disciplines already underway. One important group is DataCite, while others remain ad hoc and uncoordinated. An important milestone in this area is the joint declaration of the *Data Citation Principles* available at http://www.force11.org/datacitation. *Issues Re*quiring Attention A number of issues (technical, scientific, institutional, financial, sustainability, persistent identifiers, legal issues, intellectual property rights, socio-cultural and community norms, other issues) that need attention related to data citation, coordinate activities in this area, and promote common practices and standards in the research community, globally are being examined by the Data Citation TG of CODATA with representatives from several other organizations. It is important for our country to take stock of what is being done in the data citation area and to begin formulating and adopting a formal data citation protocol for use by different discipline areas or actors in the research community. *Objectives* The main objective in the next one year , is to promote the implementation of the data citation principles in the research policy and funding communities throughout the world. *Workshop Series* It has been decided to hold discussions on this important issue of Data Citation standards and Protocols and 11 countries (including India) have been identified to hold workshops on the centric issue of big and open data citation protocols. Around 11 national and regional workshops dedicated to this focused objectives for the policy makers and funding community in the respective countries, that includes *India, China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Brazil, EU, France, USA, and the Group on Earth Observations* and to come out with a synthesis paper that integrates the findings. The aim is to tailor-fit the workshops to the needs and interests of the respective country or region. In countries/regions with an existing culture of data sharing and citation the targeted audience will mainly consist of funders, policy makers, journal editors and learned societies, whereas in countries/regions that have just begun to focus on data related issues, the targeted audience will mainly be the social science and science community itself. In those countries/regions it might also be a useful approach to focus on individual disciplines whereas the more high-level approach should be inter-disciplinary. *Workshop Dates* The dates for the workshops in many countries have been finalized. The workshops in *China*: August 25th, 2015; *Japan*: between July to December 2015; *South Africa*: 15 October 2015; *Taiwan*: Spring 2016, *Israel*: Spring 2016, *USA*: (Washington, DC)Fall 2016; *Europe* : (Brussels) Summer 2016; *Australia*: 2016 (date not confirmed) *Venue* Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 *Workshop Participants* A maximum of 80-100 participants are expected and the participation is primarily by invitation and requests received will be entertained on first-cum-first serve basis. The participants would broadly include * : * § University Administrators/Policy Makers § Researchers § Data Centre Managers § Research Librarians § Research Publishers and Professional Societies *Workshop Outcomes *After every workshop a brief summary will be made available to the other organisers and the group. The expected outputs of the workshops are: § To raise general awareness for data science and data citation in the individual regions § To report back to the group and CODATA the state-of-the-art of data science and data citation from the individual regions/ countries § To gain an overview on obstacles and challenges concerning data science and data citation in the specific region/ country The organisers in each country would write a detailed summary on the topics mentioned above, to share it with the larger group within 3 months after the workshop. The event is a prestigious one and would eventually have a global policy document on data citation protocols and standards as a collective endeavour of 11 workshops as the tangible output. *Registration:* No Registration Fee. Registration on First Come First Serve Basis *For Participation : Contact Details * Dr. Usha Mujoo Munshi Indian Institute of Public Administration I.P. Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi- 110 002 (INDIA) e-mail: bigdatacitprotocol@yahoo.com; umunshi@gmail.com Tel: 011-91-23702431; 23468320; (M) 9717967686 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.