Dr. Smith assists in the development of socio-technical (people, policies, technologies) relationships with diverse stakeholders and chaired the Data Management and Curation Working Group (DMCWG) at University of Florida (UF) George A. Smathers Libraries from 2016 to 2023. Prior to joining UF in 2016, Plato completed the 2014-2016 CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Data Curation at the University of New Mexico. He received his doctorate in the field of Information Science from the School of Information within the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University, Florida’s iSchool, Summer 2014 (See: iSchool Alumni Spotlight, 5/23/2023). He has experience in digital libraries and data management, and his Master’s is from the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at the North Carolina Central University. From 2005 to 2012, he was Department Head for the FSU Libraries’ Digital Library where he developed, populated, and managed digital collections in the FSU Libraries’ digital content management system, DigiNole Repository, and electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) institutional repository (IR).
He specializes in the study of data management and curation and its interdisciplinary synergistic implications across multiple communities of practice. His current research focuses on (1) exploring the data management and curation practices of researchers across disciplines and (2) sharing faculty research data. The USGS Data Management Data Sharing Agreements resource Example Data Transfer Agreement (non-USGS) was created in collaboration with UF scientists, UF Legal Counsel, and research collaborators. The University of Florida Data Management Plan (DMP) repository was created in collaboration with UF Office of Research and UF scientists. The Lone Cabbage Oyster Project created in collaboration with University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) scientists was presented as a lightning talk at the 17th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC22) in 2022. He contributed to developing electronic lab notebook (ELN) conversations among key stakeholders which led to institutional support now available via researcher support resources at the University of Florida.
While working as a temporary Rotator for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in the CISE OAC division, he developed the Cyberinfrastructure for Public Access and Open Science (CI PAOS) (PD 24-7414) program description and Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Leveraging Cyberinfrastructure for Research Data Management (RDM) (NSF 24-085) published in April and May 2024, respectively. He collaborated on an IDCC24 lightning talk, “FAIROS Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)“, in February 2024 that preceded CI PAOS and DCL.
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Last updated on September 13, 2024.