...
Research
...
&
...
Scholarship
...
Category
...
InCommon
...
is
...
offering
...
an
...
easier
...
method
...
for
...
participants
...
to
...
provide
...
collaborative
...
services
...
for
...
researchers
...
and
...
scholars
...
via
...
their
...
federated
...
identities
...
by
...
reducing
...
the
...
policy
...
interpretation,
...
inter-institutional
...
agreements,
...
and
...
system
...
configuration
...
needed
...
for
...
those
...
services.
...
This
...
method
...
categorizes
...
service
...
providers
...
(SPs)
...
to
...
simplify
...
the
...
configuration
...
of
...
identity
...
providers
...
(IdPs);
...
the
...
result
...
is
...
that
...
researchers
...
can
...
successfully
...
access
...
SP
...
sites
...
without
...
delay
...
and
...
without
...
contacting
...
their
...
local
...
IdP
...
admin.
...
The
...
Research
...
&
...
Scholarship
...
(R&S)
...
Category
...
applies
...
to
...
service
...
providers
...
that
...
support
...
research
...
and
...
scholarly
...
activities
...
such
...
as
...
virtual
...
organizations
...
and
...
campus-based
...
collaboration
...
services.
...
Participating
...
IdPs
...
agree
...
to
...
release
...
a
...
minimal
...
set
...
of
...
attributes
...
to
...
the
...
R&S
...
category
...
with
...
a
...
one-time
...
addition
...
to
...
their
...
default
...
release
...
policies,
...
a
...
simpler
...
and
...
more
...
scalable
...
approach
...
than
...
negotiating
...
such
...
release
...
bilaterally
...
with
...
every
...
service
...
provider.
| Wiki Markup |
|---|
{div:style=float:right;margin-left:1em;margin-bottom:1ex}{note}For a quick overview, see: [R&S Category Overview|Research and Scholarship Category Overview]{note}{div} *Contents* {toc:minLevel=3} { |
Contents
| Table of Contents | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| Note | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
1)Â The immediate and most tangible benefit is that researchers and scholars on campuses that support R&S may seamlessly access a growing list of R&S services without friction or administrator involvement. In other words, the end result may be characterized as: Federation for Research and Scholarship that Just Works. 2)Â Many potential R&S services choose not to federate because IdP support for R&S across our campuses is spotty and uneven. We expect a threshold number of campuses to cause a "Cambrian Explosion" of valuable R&S services to appear in the InCommon Federation, which will spur collaboration and research in the US. 3)Â Continuing our participatory role in the global R&E community, InCommon has introduced an international version of the Research & Scholarship Service Category to the REFEDS community, which requires broad support from InCommon participants to be successful. |
Background
A growing number of Service Providers (SPs) supporting collaborative research and scholarship activities are joining InCommon. As is the standard practice in the higher education and research world, collaboration on these sites involves knowing who the collaborators are: name, email, institutional affiliation. Unfortunately, the default Attribute Release Policies in place at most campus Identity Providers (IdPs) do not share any information with these sites without local review of the SP's purpose, governing policy, and operational practices. This approach is simply not scalable to the thousands of campus IdPs and thousands of SPs supporting research and scholarship that we anticipate in the future. It is already a serious problem for the big virtual organizations and research labs; the hoped-for explosion of smaller collaboration sites housed in academic departments will not succeed with federation without a scalable solution.
All InCommon SPs are already bound by a set of practices governing how they manage and use personal attributes. InCommon's Research & Scholarship (R&S) Category defines additional set criteria that are designed to facilitate IdP policy decisions to release a controlled set of low-risk attributes to R&S SPs without local review for each SP. InCommon also provides metadata and technology tools to further facilitate automatic, but controlled, release of attributes to the R&S SPs, as well as aiding user support.
IdPs can simplify the management of their Attribute Release Policies by taking advantage of the R&S Category. With a one-time addition to their default release policies they can specify a set of attributes to release to all SPs that are in the R&S Category. This policy would apply to SPs that are added to the category in the future, without the IDP administrator having to make any changes.
Candidate Services
Whether an SP operator is commercial or non-commercial is not relevant to eligibility for the R&S Category, nor are any other aspects of how the service is implemented or operated, beyond the specific requirements noted below. It's all about purpose.
| Info | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
The three traditional dimensions of the academic endeavor are: research and scholarship, instruction, and service. Candidates for the R&S Category are Service Providers that support research and scholarship as an essential component. For example, a service providing tools for both multi-institutional research collaboration and instruction is eligible as a candidate for the R&S Category. |
InCommon has chosen to introduce service categories in a conservative way, by focusing narrowly on services purposed for research and scholarship, in order to make implementation as straightforward as possible, and limit the range of concerns to be as specific as possible. Other service categories may be defined in the future for other purposes.
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
R&S Category Attributes
| Wiki Markup |
|---|
note:title=The Research & Scholarship Value Proposition} 1) The immediate and most tangible benefit is that researchers and scholars on campuses that support R&S may seamlessly access a growing list of R&S services without friction or administrator involvement. In other words, the end result may be characterized as: _Federation for Research and Scholarship that Just Works_. 2) Many potential R&S services choose not to federate because IdP support for R&S across our campuses is spotty and uneven. We expect a threshold number of campuses to cause a "Cambrian Explosion" of valuable R&S services to appear in the InCommon Federation, which will spur collaboration and research in the US. 3) Continuing our participatory role in the global R&E community, InCommon has introduced an [international version of the Research & Scholarship Service Category|http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship] to the REFEDS community, which requires broad support from InCommon participants to be successful. {note} h3. Background A growing number of Service Providers (SPs) supporting collaborative research and scholarship activities are joining InCommon. As is the standard practice in the higher education and research world, collaboration on these sites involves knowing who the collaborators are: name, email, institutional affiliation. Unfortunately, the default Attribute Release Policies in place at most campus Identity Providers (IdPs) do not share any information with these sites without local review of the SP's purpose, governing policy, and operational practices. This approach is simply not scalable to the thousands of campus IdPs and thousands of SPs supporting research and scholarship that we anticipate in the future. It is already a serious problem for the big virtual organizations and research labs; the hoped-for explosion of smaller collaboration sites housed in academic departments will not succeed with federation without a scalable solution. All InCommon SPs are already bound by a set of practices governing how they manage and use personal attributes. InCommon's Research & Scholarship (R&S) Category defines additional set criteria that are designed to facilitate IdP policy decisions to release a controlled set of low-risk attributes to R&S SPs without local review for each SP. InCommon also provides metadata and technology tools to further facilitate automatic, but controlled, release of attributes to the R&S SPs, as well as aiding user support. IdPs can simplify the management of their Attribute Release Policies by taking advantage of the R&S Category. With a one-time addition to their default release policies they can specify a set of attributes to release to all SPs that are in the R&S Category. This policy would apply to SPs that are added to the category in the future, without the IDP administrator having to make any changes. h3. Candidate Services Whether an SP operator is commercial or non-commercial is not relevant to eligibility for the R&S Category, nor are any other aspects of how the service is implemented or operated, beyond the specific requirements noted below. It's all about purpose. {info:title=Research & Scholarship Category Definition} The three traditional dimensions of the academic endeavor are: research and scholarship, instruction, and service. Candidates for the R&S Category are Service Providers that support research and scholarship as an essential component. For example, a service providing tools for both multi-institutional research collaboration and instruction is eligible as a candidate for the R&S Category. {info} InCommon has chosen to introduce service categories in a conservative way, by focusing narrowly on services purposed for research and scholarship, in order to make implementation as straightforward as possible, and limit the range of concerns to be as specific as possible. Other service categories may be defined in the future for other purposes. {anchor:Attribute_Bundle} h3. R&S Category Attributes {div:style=float:right;margin-left:1em;margin-bottom:1ex}{note}More [Information for IdPs|Research and Scholarship for IdPs]{note}{div} |
InCommon
...
IdPs
...
are
...
strongly
...
encouraged
...
to
...
support
...
R&S
...
by
...
releasing
...
the
...
...
...
...
to
...
R&S
...
category
...
SPs.
...
With
...
respect
...
to
...
attributes,
...
note
...
that
...
InCommon
...
Service
...
Providers
...
are
...
already
...
bound
...
by
...
the
...
requirements
...
of
...
the
...
...
...
...
...
.
...
For
...
the
...
purposes
...
of
...
R&S,
...
participants
...
should
...
pay
...
particular
...
attention to Section 9 of that document:
| Info | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
9. Respect for Privacy of Identity Information Participant agrees to respect the privacy of and any other constraints placed on identity information that it might receive from other InCommon Participants as agreed upon between Participant and the InCommon to Section 9 of that document: {info:title=Excerpt from InCommon Participation Agreement}9. Respect for Privacy of Identity Information Participant agrees to respect the privacy of and any other constraints placed on identity information that it might receive from other InCommon Participants as agreed upon between Participant and the InCommonParticipant(s). In particular, Participant understands that it may not permanently store nor share or disclose or use for any purpose other than its intended purpose any identity information that it receives from another InCommon Participant without express written permission of the other InCommon Participant. Participant understands that the storing and sharing of resources is between the Participant and the InCommon Participant(s) and is not the responsibility of InCommon. {info} |
It
...
is
...
therefore
...
highly
...
recommended
...
that
...
SPs
...
use
...
a
...
minimalist
...
approach
...
to
...
attributes,
...
only
...
requesting
...
those
...
attributes
...
that
...
they
...
absolutely
...
need.
...
In
...
the
...
future,
...
as
...
InCommon
...
interoperates
...
with
...
federations
...
in
...
other
...
parts
...
of
...
the
...
world,
...
it
...
is
...
likely
...
that
...
IdPs
...
in
...
other
...
countries
...
may
...
be
...
operating
...
under
...
laws
...
and
...
regulations
...
that
...
require
...
a
...
minimalist
...
approach
...
to
...
attribute
...
release.
...
R&S
...
Application Process
| Wiki Markup |
|---|
Process {div:style=float:right;margin-left:1em;margin-bottom:1ex}{note}More [Information for SPs|Research and Scholarship for SPs]{note}{div} |
To
...
request
...
membership
...
in
...
the
...
R&S
...
Category,
...
the
...
service
...
owner
...
or
...
a
...
site
...
administrator
...
for
...
the
...
organization
...
that
...
owns
...
the
...
service
...
completes
...
an
...
...
...
asserting
...
compliance
...
with
...
the
...
requirements.
...
This
...
initiates
...
the
...
following
...
application
...
process:
...
- InCommon
...
- staff
...
- review
...
- the
...
- request,
...
- interacting
...
- with
...
- the
...
- submitter
...
- and
...
- the
...
- InCommon
...
- Technical
...
- Advisory
...
- Committee
...
- (TAC),
...
- as
...
- needed.
...
- If
...
- the
...
- service
...
- meets
...
- the
...
- basic
...
- definition
...
- of
...
- a
...
- Research
...
- &
...
- Scholarship
...
- service,
...
- a
...
- technical
...
- review
...
- is
...
- initiated.
...
- If
...
- the
...
- service
...
- satisfies
...
- the
...
- technical
...
- requirements,
...
- the
...
- InCommon
...
- RA
...
- provisionally
...
- inserts
...
- the
...
...
...
...
- into
...
- SP
...
- metadata.
...
- The
...
- submitter
...
- and
...
- the
...
- site
...
- administrators
...
- are
...
- notified
...
- and
...
- a
...
- site
...
- administrator
...
- is
...
- invited
...
- to
...
- submit
...
- the
...
- metadata,
...
- which
...
- finalizes
...
- the
...
- application
...
- process.
...
- The
...
- new
...
- R&S
...
- SP
...
- is
...
- automatically
...
- added
...
- to
...
- a
...
- web
...
- page
...
- listing
...
- the
...
...
...
...
...
...
- .
- An announcement is sent to the announce@incommon.org
...
...
- list
...
- and/or
...
- the
...
- monthly
...
- newsletter.