Description: Borealis is a bilingual, multidisciplinary research data repository supporting the secure deposit, preservation, sharing, and discovery of Canadian research data. Built on the open-source Dataverse platform and operated nationally by Scholars Portal and University of Toronto Libraries in partnership with institutions and academic libraries across Canada. Affiliated researchers can sign up to deposit and share data using repository features such file upload and ingest, support for disciplinary metadata standards, DataCite DOIs, open and controlled file access, and connected pathways for long-term preservation at institutions.
In the past year, Borealis upgraded new features for Dataverse versions 6.4-6.8 and released a new fully redesigned Data Explorer tool. The new Data Explorer offers improved data file and variable‑level exploration, cross‑tabulation and analysis tools, Codebook creation and variable documentation in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata format for import/export and data curation workflows. Additional new features include expanded metadata standards such as Croissant, a new Relation Type field supporting the DataCite schema for publication linking, and a sneak preview of the new geospatial metadata block that will support description of geospatial datasets in Borealis (coming soon).
This course will provide hands‑on training and examples of how to work with the Borealis repository’s data deposit, curation, metadata, and discovery tools, with a focus on incorporating the newest features into research data management workflows.
Teachers: Amber Leahey (Scholars Portal, University of Toronto)
Level: Beginner
Format: Lecture+Hands-on
Certificate: Attendance
Prerequisites: None