Introduction to RDM Sarah Jones & Joy Davidson Digital Curation Centre

All manner of things that researchers produce in the course of their work What is research data?

Types of research data Data can take many forms Still images, video & audio Survey results & interview transcripts Experimental observations Text corpuses Notebooks & lab books Models & software ….

Leeds Research Data Survey 2012 Top 10 research data formats FormatNumber Documents (e.g. text, Microsoft Word, PDF), spreadsheets:164 Statistical data sets (e.g. SPSS, Stata, SAS):82 Books, Manuscripts (including musical scores):74 Laboratory notebooks, field notebooks, diaries:72 Questionnaires:68 Photographs / other images:68 Interviews (including transcripts):67 Laboratory instrument data (e.g. from microscopes, chemical analysers, monitors etc.): 58 Computer software (e.g modeling / simulation, schemas):57 Models, algorithms, scripts:49

Research data are collected, observed or created, for the purposes of analysis to produce and validate original research results Both analogue and digital materials are 'data' Digital data can be: created in a digital form ("born digital") converted to a digital form (digitised) Defining research data

“the active management and appraisal of data over the lifecycle of scholarly and scientific interest” Data management is part of good research practice What is Research Data Management?

Why manage research data? - so data can be found and understand when needed - to make sure research projects can be completed! - to avoid unnecessary duplication - to validate results if required - so research is visible and has impact - to get credit when others cite the research

What is involved in RDM? -Data Management Planning (DMPs) -Creating data -Documenting data -Storing data -Sharing data -Preserving data

5 key points to remember...

1. Research funders expect DMPs

2. Researchers should get consent for data sharing & preservation too If not, data centres won’t be able to accept the data – regardless of any conditions on the original grant.

3. Some formats are better for the long-term TypeRecommendedAvoid for data sharing Tabular dataCSV, TSV, SPSS portableExcel TextPlain text, HTML, RTF PDF/A only if layout matters Word MediaContainer: MP4, Ogg Codec: Theora, Dirac, FLAC Quicktime H264 ImagesTIFF, JPEG2000, PNGGIF, JPG Structured dataXML, RDFRDBMS If researchers plan to deposit in data centres they should check their expectations at the start of the research process. Data centres may have preferred formats for deposit. Further examples:

CC image by momboleum on Flickr CC image by Sharyn Morrow on Flickr 4. One copy = risk of data loss

5. Researchers should know their options Encourage researchers to find out what support is available – Speak to the library & local IT support – Check out what facilities are available in the department – See what others in their discipline are doing – Find out what their funder expects and offers – Check out national data centres - Managing and sharing data guide by the UKDA

Good data management is about making informed decisions

Exercise: sharing data In your groups discuss reasons why researchers may or may not share data Use the different coloured post-it notes to list reasons for (green) and against (pink) data sharing