Research Data Management Overview and Introduction

Topics• What is research data management (RDM)

and why is it important– National landscape and external drivers– Newcastle University response/policy/implications

• Data lifecycle models• Problems, practical strategies and solutions• Benefits and barriers

What is RDM?“Research data management concerns the organisation of data, from its entry to the research cycle through to the dissemination and archiving of valuable results.”

Whyte & Tedds, 2011http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/briefing-papers/making-case-rdm

External drivers• Research funder policies (e.g. RCUK, charities)– Require Open Access, RDM plans or 'technical

appendices'• Volume of digital research data ‘big data’• Legislation & litigious environment– DPA, FOIA

Newcastle University• Providing excellent research infrastructure– Significant financial implications – More efficient research processes– Avoiding data loss– Benefits of data reuse

• Better oversight of research outputs

What is research data?• Any material required to re-validate the results of

research– Not only quantitative, tabular "hard scientific" data– Can include photographs, sculptures, letters,

speeches, music… etc.• No limited definition stated in Newcastle

University's draft RDM policy principles & code of good practice

• Digital– Computer hard disc/s and archive– Separate external drives– Cloud

• Analogue– Paper– Tapes

Storing your research data

ACTIVITY: YOUR RESEARCH DATA

What types of research data do you create and use?Where do you keep it?

UK Data Archive data lifecycle Creating

Data

Processing Data

Analysing Data

Preserving Data

Giving access to Data

Re-using Data

• A dataset has a longer lifespan than the research project that created it

Create

Document

Use

Store

Share

Preserve

Digital Curation Centre (DCC) data activity lifecycle • A dataset

has a longer lifespan than the research project that created it

DCC curation lifecycle modelI. Full lifecycle actionsDescription and Representation Information, Preservation Planning, Community Watch and Participation, Curate and Preserve

II. Sequential actionsConceptualise, Create or Receive, Appraise and Select, Ingest, Preservation Action, Store, Access, Use and, Reuse, Transform

III. Occasional actionsDispose, Reappraise, Migrate

ACTIVITY: YOUR RESEARCH DATA CYCLE

Can you improve your research data management?Where are the weak points?

Benefits for the researcher• Meet funding body grant requirements• Enhanced security/reduced risk of data loss• Improved use of resource(s), reduced

duplication, access to external datasets• Verification of research publication claims• Stimulation of new collaborations and research

opportunities

Benefits for the "public good"• Better value for the "public purse"• Building research and knowledge• Data and records are accurate, complete,

authentic and reliable• Comply with legal and ethical considerations• Research integrity and replication

ACTIVITY: BARRIERSWhat are the barriers to participating?

In summary• RDM concerns the careful management of

data throughout its lifecycle• Newcastle University is making a strong

institution-wide response• The benefits outweigh the barriers!

Acknowledgements• iridium project (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/rdm/) • Netskills (http://www.netskills.ac.uk) • Digital Curation Centre (DCC) (http://www.dcc.ac.uk/)• The UK Data Archive

– http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage• DaMaRO RDM Training Materials, University of Oxford

– http://damaro.oucs.ox.ac.uk/training_materials.xml • Research data MANTRA [online course], EDINA and Data Library,

University of Edinburgh– http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/