4R Fund Research Repository

The objectives of this project are to develop: (1) a data repository for projects funded under the 4R Fund; (2) data preprocessing protocols for repository ingestion; (3) best practices toolkits; and (4) data/metadata standards for agronomic researchers.

The 4R Research Repository team at Purdue University has accomplished the following to date:

· Objective 1 was accomplished by opening up the use of the Purdue University Research Repository (https://purr.purdue.edu) to research projects outside of those conducted by Purdue University.
· Objective 2 is being accomplished through an iterative process of examining a submitted data set, using expert knowledge to develop a data quality checklist for that data set, testing the completeness of that checklist with a new data set, making needed revisions, and so on. Currently, data sets from eight projects are in review.
· Objective 3 has been accomplished in part with the development of a data template that researchers can use at their discretion.
· Objective 4 has been started with the on-going development of a data dictionary. Definitions of various terms are first sought from the Library of Congress and, when none exist, other definitions are incorporated from authoritative sources.

Work for this project is ongoing and will be extended into 2018.