The Dryad Management Board recently held their Winter 2009 meeting at the British Library Conference Center in London. The meeting was attended by 13 journal representatives and 4 members of the Dryad development team. A few highlights from the meeting:

Dryad now includes 489 data files in 163 data packages, though a large proportion of this content has been imported from the Systematic Biology archives.

The rate of submissions to Dryad is slowly increasing. Dryad has been able to accept submissions from authors since early 2009. Two journals, The American Naturalist and Molecular Ecology, have completed initial integration with Dryad, allowing their authors to use a more streamlined submission process. The Journal of Heredity is making progress on integration, and several other journals expect to integrate in the near future.

We are currently improving the user interface for locating and obtaining data. We are developing more sophisticated tools for curation, and we are working with several partner repositories to replicate content and provide federated searching services. For more detail, see the Dryad Development Plan.

The board discussed the role of identifiers in Dryad and whether DOIs should be assigned to Dryad’s holdings. Representatives from CrossRef and DataCite led discussions on the advantages of DOIs. The board unanimously recommended that each Dryad data package be given a DOI (a data package is all data associated with a single article). The executive committee will determine whether DOIs should be used at more granular levels (e.g., the individual files within a data package).

The longest discussion of the meeting focused on plans for transitioning Dryad from the current grant funding to a model that is more sustainable for the long term. Todd Vision presented a cost model created by the Dryad development team and consultant Lorraine Eakin. Consultants from Charles Beagrie Limited presented an analysis of expected staffing needs and potential revenue streams. The board provided guidance on the schedule and methods for pursuing revenue from a variety of sources.

Community engagement emerged as a critical factor in ensuring long-term sustainability. Towards that end, the board discussed many ideas for increasing the visibility of the repository. Notable steps include increasing the frequency of posts on this blog, having a more visible presence at scientific meetings, and expanding use of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Once the Dryad development team compiles all notes from the meeting, we will release a more detailed report.