1 ‘Triple A’ CHECKLISTS

Partners in the CIARD movement have made a collective commitment to promote the sharing of data, information, and knowledge in a global network of truly public collections of information, based on a Manifesto and a common set of Principles.

To ensure that public domain research outputs – in the form of information, data and knowledge – form part of a global ‘knowledge commons’ for agriculture, these outputs should be assembled, created, handled and disseminated in ways that ensure that they will be as Available, Accessible and Applicable (Triple A) as possible.

Research information systems should ideally be able to match the Triple A Checklists. There are various ways in which this Triple A agenda can be achieved, depending on the specific scope of an organization’s work. In fact, each organization will be able to develop its’ own pathway. An organization should aim to achieve as many of the Checklist objectives as it can, as quickly as it can. The Checklists are not strict requirements, they represent standards toward which all organizations can progress.

The Triple A Checklists show actions which, when achieved as a whole, will enable an institution or research system to conform fully with the CIARD Manifesto and Principles. These are aimed at developing necessary institutional capacity, as well as approaches to managing digital content, licensing and ‘opening up’ that content, and then disseminating it. They also cover the applicability of research outputs, setting out some approaches that will ensure that knowledge is put into action more efficiently through planning and implementing research programmes and then communicating outcomes.

To complement the Checklists, a range of targeted Pathways are also provided showing the ways in which the Checklist actions can be achieved.

1.1 Three A's

Availability: Information is stored in digital formats, with clearly defined copyright, managed in one or more institutionally-owned repositories built and structured according to accepted international standards.

Accessibility: Information is openly accessible for all users, and easily located via the Internet from outside the institution using tools and services adopted by the international community.

Applicability: Research planning, implementation and communication are an inclusive process bringing together all perspectives and knowledge. Research outputs and messages are adapted for easy access, use and re-use by different stakeholders, increasing the public benefits derived from the research.

1.2 Increase the Availability and Accessibility of Research Outputs

1.2.1 Developing Institutional Capacity

1. Advocate within your institution for the benefits of the CIARD agenda of digital availability/accessibility/applicability of information content. Work to gain the support of all stakeholders and content owners for an institutional repository (IR), including librarians, researchers, students, administrators and policy makers.
2. Carry out an institutional needs assessment to support the need for the CIARD agenda.
3. Publicize your agreement with the principles in the CIARD Manifesto: Sign online, make a link from your web site to www.ciard.net, join the CIARD ‘Web Ring.’
4. Commit to an institutional policy for the long term sustainability of your digital information content and systems.
5. Develop the capacities of your institution – in terms of policies, institutional structures, individual skills in developing and managing Institutional Repositories, the technology infrastructure, and associated systems such as libraries and research networks.
6. Work in national/local institutional partnerships and networks to share resources and skills related to achieving the CIARD Principles.
7. Document and share experiences, training materials, case studies and other learning objects on information and communication.
8. Join bodies which are active nationally and internationally for information specialists working in agriculture and related areas, such as IAALD.

1.2.2 Availability of Research Outputs

1. Plan and develop an Institutional Repository to make digital research outputs (current, and also archives previously held only as print) available on the Internet using internationally documented best practices.
2. Put in place policies that ensure the quality of the content of your Institutional Repository.
3. Store and publish outputs in the full range of content formats – documents, images, audio, video – and their metadata, in appropriate digital formats that both preserve and safeguard their future use and ensure widest current availability.
4. Use documented metadata standards including Dublin Core or AGRIS Application Profile, and protocols such as the Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).
5. Classify your content using widely accepted agricultural vocabularies (like AGROVOC, CABI or NAL thesauri) making it easy to find and use across different services and platforms.
6. License research outputs so that others are “free to use, reuse, and redistribute” them with appropriate acknowledgement.

1.2.3 Accessibility of Research Outputs

1. Adopt international accessibility standards for web-based systems and outputs, optimizing them for low and high bandwidth environments. Ensure that your outputs will be accessible across different platforms – web, email …
2. Optimize your web sites and content for global and specialized search services, such as Google and SIST.
3. Share your metadata and full content, as appropriate, of outputs through international systems that maximise accessibility (e.g. AGRIS, CAB Abstracts, Consortium for Spatial Information).
4. Work with publishers who will make your outputs, or will allow your outputs to be, openly available through various systems.
5. Reinforce the information dissemination and repackaging capacities of your institution to improve dissemination to research ‘end users’.
6. Use ‘social’ media applications to help your content to travel.
7. Use standard formats for information feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) from Repositories and register feeds with ‘Agrifeeds’ and ‘News4dev’ aggregators.

1.3 Enhance the Applicability of Research

1.3.1 Planning and Doing Research

1. Encourage and strengthen initiatives that create strong networks and build innovation capacity. Work in partnerships to create new strategies, policies, interventions and technologies with long term and sustainable outcomes and impacts.
2. Adopt systems-oriented approaches that recognize that scientific research is just one ‘piece of the puzzle.’
3. Adopt empowering strategies that benefit, and have the support and ‘ownership’ of, all stakeholders.
4. Define research problems in collaborative, user-driven ways that help to bridge gaps between research and user communities.

1.3.2 Communicating Research

1. Develop new ways to stimulate and sustain effective dialogue between the various agricultural actors involved in generating and applying scientific and technical information and knowledge.
2. Reinforce the knowledge-sharing, communication, information dissemination and repackaging capacities of intermediary partner organizations that are more likely to reach research ‘end users’.
3. Devise appropriate reward and funding systems that encourage communication via multiple channels, as well as collaborative learning and knowledge creation.