News

Published

Oct 7, 2020

Author

Ilaria Fava

An inside and out revamp of Argos, OpenAIRE's DMP service

Oct 7, 2020

An updated version of Argos, OpenAIRE’s machine-actionable tool for creating Data Management Plans (DMPs), has just launched. This version presents significant changes from the previous and forms a compilation of improvements made on the software, the design, service enhancements and researchers support.

What’s changed?

The most noticeable change is on Argos logo and user interface (UI/UX). The whole tool was redesigned to provide a lighter and more modern look & feel and to better reflect Argos strengths and functionalities making it easier to use. That change itself proved to have few dependencies with the model that Argos is built on. Following that, the DMP Expert has been merged with the DMP Wizard under a common editor, which is now the only path to creating DMPs. The Dataset Wizard still applies so that descriptions of new data are added to existing DMPs.

What’s new?

Argos has a new homepage where users can access the tool from, but also navigate around and learn about Argos progress (roadmap), its main features and how to use them, download flyers and supporting material and even send their feedback and request technical support. The tool is now available in more languages thanks to the help provided by OpenAIRE NOADs and colleagues around Europe. Argos templates are enriched with information from the RDM guides, produced by the OpenAIRE RDM Task Force, to facilitate the writing process, especially for novice users. New templates are available from the collection, too. A Discard button is added and also Save has extra functions: Save & Close, Save & Add New.

Moreover, in this version, Argos extends its pool of APIs from OpenAIRE and also tests the beta API of EOSC, to make the search process for re-used datasets and RDM tools from Argos environment easier. Finally, an RDA compliant import mechanism was built to allow users to move their DMPs around RDA compliant platforms without losing vital information.

Did you know?

Argos participated in and won the RDA Hackathon that was organized earlier this year. Among other things, the Hackathon activities showed where tweaks had to be made with respect to machine-actionability whilst additional challenges identified throughout the process were communicated with the global community (full report was submitted to and is pending publication by RDA CODATA journal).

Argos was recently chosen by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for trial use in support of their RDM policy implementation. Also, an excellent collaboration with the ARIADNEPlus community for archaeological data resulted in knowledge exchange and improvements on both ARIADNEPlus DMP template and Argos (more information will follow in a blogpost).

Ongoing

Argos started to work with the Research Graph and Zenodo teams to expose DMPs and make them findable in OpenAIRE EXPLORE. Finally, ongoing work with Funder Monitoring Dashboard aims to produce indicators for measuring DMPs usage, that will be available and customisable via the dashboard.

About Argos: Argos is an open and collaborative platform developed by OpenAIRE to facilitate Research Data Management (RDM) activities concerning the implementation of Data Management Plans. It uses OpenAIRE guides created by the RDM Task Force to familiarize users with basic RDM concepts and guide them throughout the process of writing DMPs. It also utilises the OpenAIRE pool of services and inferred sources to make DMPs more dynamic in use and easier to be completed and published. Argos is based on the OpenDMP open source software and is available through the OpenAIRE Service catalogue and the EOSC Portal.