Transcript Document

Research data management –
a brief introduction
Slides provided by the DaMaRO Project,
University of Oxford
July 22, 2015
Research
Services
What is research data management?
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Research data is all the information you make use of in
your research
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Structured data (in databases, tables, etc.)
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Unstructured data (in textual sources, images, audio
recordings, personal notes, emails, etc.)
Data management is how you organize, structure,
store, and care for this
It’s about ensuring you have the information you need
at your fingertips
And about ensuring that information remains available
and intelligible in the longer term
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 2
Data management basics
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Do your current methods of dealing with information
allow you to find what you need, when you need it?
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Are files and data suitably labelled to aid retrieval?
Be proactive and plan ahead – what will you want to be
able to do with your data in the future?
How are you storing your data for the duration of your
project? What’s your back-up plan?
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The HFS service offers free back-up to graduates and staff
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Do you have access to space on a departmental server?
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Synchronization software (e.g. Dropbox) can help if you use
multiple computers
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 3
Data management tools
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Are you using the best tools for the task in hand?
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Don’t struggle on with the wrong software or technique just
because it’s what you know
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If you’ve ever thought ‘I wish I could…’, maybe someone else
has, too – and has written some software to make it possible
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Tools exist to do a huge range of jobs – to help organize and
analyse information, annotate Web pages, PDFs, or images,
and much more
Discover new tools via the Research Skills Toolkit
website
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You could also ask colleagues for recommendations, or
search for online reviews
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 4
Longer term goals
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If you return to your data in a year or two, will it still be
intelligible?
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Is the data adequately documented?
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Does the format make it clear what everything means?
Are there abbreviations that need explanation?
Where did it come from? Who created it?
What changes have been made to it?
Is any additional information needed to place the data in
context?
Are there any restrictions on how it can be used?
What’s your long term storage plan?
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 5
Data sharing and curation
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Data sharing is…
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Good practice – helps make the most of data
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Good for you – improve your citation rate
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Now required by most major funders
Much easier if planned for early on in a project
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Is the data in an appropriate format? Does it have the relevant
documentation and metadata?
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Are there confidentiality or IP issues?
Consider depositing data in a repository or archive
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There are many subject-specific repositories
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From 2013, Oxford will offer DataBank (an institutional digital data
archive) and DataFinder (a catalogue of datasets)
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 6
Training and advice
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The Oxford University Research Data Management
website provides information and guidance
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Bodleian Libraries can advise on curation and description
of datasets (metadata), and can assign DOIs
The IT Learning Programme offers courses on a wide
range of software
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Covers data management planning, back-up and security,
sharing and archiving, and more
Also database design, working with digital images, etc.
The Graduate Training site and the Skills Hub (both on
WebLearn) detail other training opportunities
Research
Services
Research data
management –
a brief introduction
July 22, 2015
Page 7