1. Summary of Project
Description:
There are in fact two different projects. One is to consolidate and improve access to resources for
researchers at VCU with a focus on faculty. The other is to set up and provide a resource to assist
scientists in planning how they will collect, order, and store their research data. It hasn’t yet been decided
what to call the first project, however for convenience I will refer to it as the “VCU Research Gateway”.
For now I will refer to the other project as the “VCU Data Management Plan initiative”.
The Research Gateway will be a work in progress and as such will be continuously updated and
expanded. It will begin as a two databases, one of resources located at VCU, and the other for resources
located elsewhere. This information will be sorted for relevance and content. It will then be presented on a
website using the LibGuides content management system. It will be designed for ease of use, efficient
organization, as well as convenient searching.
At VCU, the Data Management Plan initiative will utilize the DMPTool which will help guide researchers
in effective data management planning. Through use of this tool they will describe, step-by-step, what
types of data will be collected, how it is collected, what formats the files will be in, how that information will
be stored, as well as other important details. Without this type of planning, data is often lost, collected
incorrectly, and is difficult to retrieve. Thus effective data management is needed to address these and
related problems inherent to research.
Project Goals:
● To consolidate resources for researchers at VCU with a focus on faculty.
● To promote better data management and data access.
Questions about the project involving a list of resources for researchers:
● Who will access this?
○ A) Researchers at VCU, Students, and Faculty
● What reasons will they access?
○ A) Identify resources and personnel.
● What should be included in the spreadsheet?
○ Resources at VCU
○ Available to researchers at VCU and elsewhere from other fields and at all levels
(student, faculty, researcher)
○ Should general resources be listed (like the University Writing Center)?
● What should the resource be called?
○ Research Gateway
○ VCU Research Navigator
○ Research Portal
○ Research Roadmap
○ Research Resources
● How do we increase awareness of the resources? (Will there be a link on the VCU website? If so,
where should it be?

2. ● What do we assume that they already know?
● How will this information be organized?
● How extensive will this list be?
● Should this database focus more on data acquisition or data storage?
● What data is relevant?
● How much will I have to know about the resources, facilities, and subjects to build a meaningful
database? What information will be found in all and what information will be endemic?
● How condensed should the info be?
○ Keep the description to 1 sentence if possible but no more than 3
○ If the information is too much to list, should instead a link be provided to info (assuming it
is available? If not then what should be done?
● How and should I scale the info?
● Should this be organized by campus, subject, or by some other way?
○ Things should be organized by subject of research.
● How should the data be restricted (numbers,text, ect)? What to do with exceptions (unusual
format, no info, ect)?
● What databases, websites, ect already contain this information?
● How can this process be automated?
○ Are there databases that keep this information?
○ Is it possible to write a program to access the API to get this information?
● Should this provide data in a specific format or should it be more of a link to other resources?
● When there are resources that are part of a large resource (for example Center for Clinical and
Translational service), should they both be listed? If not then should the sub-resources (for
example the Community Engagement Core) or the main resource be listed.
● How specific should the <Building/Campus> be and what to do if something isn’t necessarily on
either campus. Also, how should I refer to each campus (for example Academic campus or
Monroe Campus, Medical campus or MCV)?
● Should <Services> and <Instruments> be merge? If not, should software be listed as a service or
an instrument?
● Should I include a resource that doesn’t have a set physical location (like IT services)?
● <Staff> What types of staff should be listed? Should I get rid of this column?
● <Subjects> More categories need to be added.
Notes for Resources not at VCU
● How extensive or general should this be? We have to think carefully about what to include here.
This could easily become a list so large it’s intractable.
● It might make sense to limit the list to resources that are not specific to subject, and are available
to any researcher at all levels.
● Is the <Staff> category still relevant?
● <availability>
● Should the list be restricted to free resources? If ones that require payment are included then
should they be listed separately so that they are easily identifiable?
● Is the <Funding> still relevant for resources not at VCU?
Notes:
As an example I will start with the Grant Language: Boilerplates and the website for the Shared Research
Cores at the Massey Cancer center. Some resources are present in one but not the other.

3. Unedited notes from Spreadsheet:
Should I include only potential resources for researchers or can I include departments at VCU performing
research (for example, can I include "http://www.cicfs.vcu.edu/)? Should any type of research resource be
included (for example, should social research be excluded)? If there is too much information to practically
list, and the information is available, should I instead put a link (for example Rice center Staff)?
Should citation be included?
*<Building/Campus>Some locations are not necessarily on one campus or the other. might want to get rid
of, change, or modify
*<Staff>How extensive should this be? Should it include all staff? If not then which should be listed?
*<All>Why did the cells with Paul get highlighted in green. Clearing formats didn't work, nor did changing
the fill color.
*<Name>Should I adjust the names to be easier to sort alphabetically?
*Can something be under more than one subject? Is this determined by what is done or who it is done
for? What to do if something doesn't fit a Subject?
*<Tags>Can a tag be more than one word? Should mutiple ways of saying a word be included (tenses,
plural, conjugation, ect)? Is it redundant to include words in the name? How specefic should this be to
avoid confusion? How extensive should this be?
*<All>Some are unlisted, some have too many to make listing practical
University Computer Center:*More in Technology Services, this could be expanded