Research data management guide
Data management is the storage, access and preservation of data produced during research. It covers the entire lifecycle of data, from planning the research to conducting it, and from backing up data during the project to long term preservation after the research has ended. (CASRAI)
- Plan data management
- What is a data management plan?
- Funder requirements
- Data management plan tools & examples
- Pre-registration
- Find or collect data
- Find data
- Collect data ethically
- Research with Indigenous communities
- Manage data during research
- File formats
- File naming, organization, versioning
- Document & describe
- Storage & backup
- Analyze & visualize data
- Archive & share data
- Prepare data for archiving, sharing
- Where to share data
- Data licenses
- Cite data
- Resources
- Institutional RDM Strategy
- Help
Why manage your data?
Effective data management practices ensure that the data you collect today are used effectively and remain usable over time.
To understand how, watch this NYU Health Sciences Library video which highlights some common data mismanagement issues.
Here are some of the poor data management practices highlighted in the video
- The researcher did not consider that his data may be useful to others in different fields and therefore did not plan for sharing.
- The researcher was not aware of his funder’s and the publisher’s policies on sharing data.
- The researcher did not use a repository to share his data, but relied on people contacting him directly for it.
- The researcher only kept one copy of the data and he forgot where he had stored it.
- The data on the memory stick could have been lost or damaged during his move, or in the mail.
- The researcher used a data format that became obsolete, rather than an open format (such as csv, txt, etc).
- The researcher did not provide sufficient metadata to explain what the column headings meant.
- The researcher did not agree with his colleague on who would be responsible for keeping the data and metadata for the long term.
Source: Cambridge Libraries
Effective RDM practices also...
Increase your research impact
Making your data available to other researchers can impact discovery and relevance of your research
Save time
Planning ahead for your data management needs will save you time and resources
Preserve your data
Depositing your data in a repository safeguards your investment of time and resources while preserving your research contribution for you and others to use
Maintain data integrity
Managing and documenting your data throughout its life cycle will allow you and others to understand and use your data in the future
Meet journal & funder requirements
Many funding agencies and journals now require that researchers deposit data collected as part of a research project
Promote new discoveries
Sharing your data with other researchers can lead to new and unanticipated discoveries and provide research material for those with little or no funding
