Research data can take many forms, both digital and non-digital. It may refer to primary data collected first hand (such as interview scripts) or it may refer to secondary research created by others.
Research data management (RDM) refers to the process of planning and managing research data throughout the research process (known as the as the data life cycle).
JISC define RDM as the process of keeping data...
well-organised and documented, so that it is easy to share with other researchers and the public.
There are many reasons why it’s a good idea to manage your research data. Well organised research data makes your project:
More information about research data management and the data lifecycle can be found in JISC's RDM toolkit.
If you are undertaking a research project that involves research data, you will need to create a research data management plan. If your research is funded, this may be mandated by your research funder. You may also be required to write a research data management plan as part of a grant application.
The Digital Curation Centre provide a great resource that you can use when considering how to make a data management plan and showcase some examples of data management plans.
You will need to ensure that you adhere to the University’s research data management policy.
1. Researchers should consider data creation, management and sharing in a ‘Data
Management Plan (DMP).
2. DMPs are best practice for all research (funded or unfunded).
3. Responsibility for research data management lies primarily with the researchers.
4. Where research data may contain personal information about identifiable individuals
data protection laws must be considered.
6. Researchers should adhere to their DMP throughout the research process.
7. Research metadata will be published (where appropriate) for permanent citation in
Lincoln’s Repository.
8. Access to research data will be granted under appropriate safeguards.
9. It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure all research data that support and
substantiate published research findings are offered to an appropriate repository for long
term storage and public access.
If your research project is funded (for example, through research council funding), you may also have to comply with your funder's Research Data Management Policy. Some of the most common RDM policies are listed below:
When writing a data management plan you should also consider FAIR principles (in addition to your funder requirements). They stand for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, they represent accepted standards of RDM management.
When you have created your research data management plan, it is important that you stick to it since there are many issues that you will have to navigate when working with your data:
It is normally recommended practice that you store your data using the university’s cloud storage.
If possible, store data on more than one type of media.
If you are making notes, you may like to use electronic research notebooks.
Make sure you back your data up regularly.
You will need to consider what format you want to save your data with. You will need to think about:
Your data’s longevity: (will formats facilitate future use)?
The Library of Congress recommends output types which can be found on their website.
It is also important to organise your data effectively. The video below provides an introduction to basic principles of organising your research data
Consider creating a hierarchy of folders, more information can be found on the UK data service website.
Make sure that you create devise a consistent and logical way of naming folders and files.
Ensure that you have a good command tracking newer versions of data (known as version control).
You will also need to consider how much meta-data you need to create. Metadata refers to information that describes your data. The JISC toolkit for research data management recommends topics below as considerations for creating meta-data:
You will also need to understand issues relating to data protection and the handling of sensitive information. If you are collecting personally identifiable information (PII) you will need to consider the type of data that your research discloses.
There are different types of personally identifiable information:
You should address indirect identifiers as thoroughly as you would the direct ones.
You should also be aware of special legal protection given to specific types of data:
Taken from JISC toolkit for RDM under CC-BY-NC-ND License.
In response to these measures, you may wish to anonymise your data. More information can be found on the UK data service management website.
When your data is ready to share, you will need to think about how to share it and how to license it. You may deposit your data in a repository, a data journal, or publish it alongside your research.
Data can be uploaded to the Repository. Guidance on how to deposit datasets in the repository can be found on the repository's help blog. A list of other data repositories and journals can be found from Nature and TRAC.
When sharing your data, you should consider how to license it. More information can be found under copyright and licensing.
