Library Researcher Series: Research Data Management (2014)

Tuesday April 1, 2014 : Research Data Management

Caring for your data - ideas for planning for, storing, & sharing the data from your research program. This is a brief introduction to research data management plans and what you should consider when developing them.

Session provided Apr 1, 2014, by Ian MacPhedran & Sean Cavanaugh, ICT.

As the name implies, these are plans for what you do with your research data. There are a number of things to consider, and we will discuss some of these considerations.

What data are you working with?

How will it be organised? (This includes what data formats are used to hold the data, and what metadata is used to describe the data.)

Who can access it, and what can they do with it? (E.g. can they read it, suggest modifcations, actually make modifications, etc.)

Are there restrictions around the data? (Proprietary agreements, privacy considerations, ethics restrictions)

How will it be processed? (Software used, workflow paths, etc.)

How will it be stored?

How will it be preserved? (This includes during the project and after as well.)

How will it be distributed?

There are a number of sites that provide extra information.

• ScholarsPortal is an organisation that consists of Ontario University Libraries
• The National Science Fund in the US requires data management plans in their grant proposals
• Several US universities now provide support for their researchers
• E.g University of California, Indiana University,
• And the US Library of Congress provides preservation for some digital data
• The University of Edinburgh provides training in data management through "MANTRA"
• The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) in the UK promotes data management and curation
• This includes the data management plans, and checklists for creating them
• In Canada, we do not have DMP requirements from our main funding bodies, however there are a number of initiatives that work toward supporting them.
• The tricouncils, CFI and Genome Canada released a discussion paper late in 2013
• The tricouncils are also looking at OpenAccess requirements for research funded under their auspices.
• A large group called The Leadership Council for Digital Infrastructure is working on a "Digital Infrastructure" to support research and data.
• The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has created a body to support a research data management network. This is intended to be modelled after the UK's DCC.
• There are a number of local policies and procedures that are also part of your considerations. Research Ethics are involved in how you gather your data in a number of fields. We also have, as part of our Responsible Conduct of Research Policy document, a procedure for stewardship of research records (including the need to plan for a minimum 5 year retention of records or data).

There have been requests for the slides from the presentation and a link to the humorous video. (Although you might not find it funny if it has happened to you or your students.)

Here is the presentation, and the video is available on this YouTube page.