Good practice in Research Data ManagementModule 3: Personal action planning

Topics• Research Data Management planning

checklists• A checklist for the Newcastle University

researcher

RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT PLANNING CHECKLISTS

ACTIVITY: PERSONAL ACTIONS

RDM Action planning• Where are you now?• Where do you want to be?• How can you get there?• What action will you take?

RDM planning checklists• Help you maintain, preserve and add value to

the research data produced throughout the project lifecycle

• Aids team members who have to produce Data Management Plans for submission to funders– and their subsequent development once funding

awarded

2 examples• University of Oxford

– http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/rdm/dmp/checklist/

• MIT– http://

libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/data-management/checklist.html

Defining actions• Working through the checklist should help to

define– Responsibility for actions in the plan– What further information is required to carry out

actions

A 20 POINT CHECKLIST FOR THE NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER

Ncl Checklist (1-5)1. Are tools or software needed to create, process, or visualise the

data?2. Are there any special privacy or security requirements? (personal

data, high-security data); When should you not share your data or what data can’t you share?

3. Are there any sharing/ long term deposit requirements? (i.e. funder mandated repository)

4. Are there any other funder requirements you need to take account of? (i.e. data management plan in proposal)

5. Is there good project and data documentation, including adequate metadata?

Ncl Checklist (6-10)6. What directory and file naming convention will you

use?7. What project and data identifiers will be assigned?8. Is there a subject specific standard or other

standard for data sharing/integration you should be using?

9. Do you have a storage and backup strategy?10. When will you publish it and where?

Ncl Checklist (11-15)11. Are tools or software needed to create, process, or visualise the

data?12. Are there any special privacy or security requirements? (personal

data, high-security data); When should you not share your data or what data can’t you share?

13. Are there any sharing/ long term deposit requirements? (i.e. funder mandated repository)

14. Are there any other funder requirements you need to take account of? (i.e. data management plan in proposal)

15. Is there good project and data documentation, including adequate metadata?

Ncl Checklist (16-20)16. What directory and file naming convention will you

use?17. What project and data identifiers will be assigned?18. Is there a subject specific standard or other

standard for data sharing/integration you should be using?

19. Do you have a storage and backup strategy?20. When will you publish it and where?

ACTIVITY: PERSONAL ACTION PLANNING

3 actions• What key actions do you commit to

undertaking?1. ?2. ?3. ?

SESSION REVIEW

In summary• Gathering the required information for data

management is not a trivial process!– Key skill in academia– Should be shared between individual researchers

and research groups, institutions, funders and national agencies

• Following the checklist should help you to define questions and lead to answers

Acknowledgemets• Digital Curation Centre (DCC)

– http://www.dcc.ac.uk/training

• Research data MANTRA [online course], EDINA and Data Library, University of Edinburgh– http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/