We are the Data Curation Network

As professional data curators, data management experts, data repository administrators, disciplinary scientists and scholars we represent academic institutions and non-profit data repositories that steward research data for future use.

What we do

We strive to build a trusted community-led network of curators advancing open research by making data more ethical, reusable, and understandable.

Get involved

Our Values

Open.  We share data curation techniques that are practical, transparent and available to all.

Trusted. We add value to data while maintaining data integrity and upholding the ethical responsibilities of data sharing.

Inclusive. We foster an accessible and welcoming environment to equitably support all participants.

CollaborativeWe build an innovative community of practice for data curation.

Empowering. We advocate for data professionals by providing a pipeline for training data curators, promoting data curation practices and enriching capacities for data curation writ large.

Recent blog posts

Exploring the Reuse of DCN-Curated Data

September 3, 2024

This post was authored by intern Jodecy Guerra, as part of a semester-long intern with the DCN Spring 2024.This post was edited by Shawna Taylor and Mikala Narlock. Introduction As a spring 2024 intern with the Data Curation Network (DCN), I had the opportunity to explore how data curation enhances data reuse. While the DCN…

Diving Into OpenRefine: Creating a Tool-Based Primer

August 28, 2024

This guest blog post was written by OpenRefine Primer authors, Heather Charlotte Owen (University of Rochester, https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1771-366X), Aditi Thite (AVSInfoPro, LLC, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6193-5407), and Peyton Tvrdy (U.S. Department of Transportation, National Transportation Library, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9720-4725). All attended the April 2023 Data Curation Workshop sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. OpenRefine is a powerful data cleaning and…

Announcing Five Joining DCN Members and the Growth of the RADS Initiative

August 22, 2024

This post was authored by Jennifer Moore, Head of Data Services at WashU, and Mikala Narlock, DCN Director. The Data Curation Network (DCN) is excited to announce the addition of five new members, who will be joining our community from August 19, 2024, to August 14, 2026. Joining members: University of Arizona  Institutional Representative: Fernando…

Get to know DCN Advisory Board Member, Tim McGeary!

August 20, 2024

This post is a spin-off of our Curators’ Corner series. Every so often we’ll feature a different DCN Advisory or Governance Board member. Get to know the colleagues at the DCN that help keep our operations going! Tim McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology, Duke University, DCN Advisory Board Chair, was interviewed…

The Data Curation Network is hosted by the University of Minnesota Libraries.