Institutional case study London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Gareth Knight Research Data Manager London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

LSHTM RDM Service Public health research in many disciplines across the world RDM placed in remit of the Archives & Records Management Service, part of LSHTM’s Library & Archives Established in response to researcher-demand for central support - RDM Working Group 2010 Funded by: Wellcome Trust – 2012-15 Institutional support – 2015 onwards 1 FTE post + additional support as needed Resources: RDM webpages, data repository, staff/student training, 1-to-1 advice, data-related policies, etc.

RDM Motivators Researchers must recognise tangible benefits of better data management practice Compliance Data Protection Funding compliance International laws & regulations Better research Tangible benefits for participants Enhance validity & reuse Higher citations & more publications Health research A key challenge that everyone faces is how you sell RDM. This requires a careful balance between selling the research value of data management and the compliance reasons. Too much emphasis upon research results in low uptake as it’s considered optional, but too much emphasis upon compliance can create resentment and the consideration of RDM as a box ticking exercise. as well as the need to comply with legal, ethical & contractual requirements

Data Management Needs Needs: Options: Deliver: PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT Finding data Data Management Plan DATA COLLECTION Electronic capture devices Data security Participant consent & consortium agreements DATA PROCESSING Processing & analysis tools International collaboration tools Data standards PROJECT CONCLUSION Anonymisation & preparing data for sharing Archiving of physical material Data journals & content delivery Needs: Funding/research expectations Common ‘pain points’ in research Scope gaps in current support Options: Community resources available Provide institutional solution (e.g. tablets & ODK, encrypted dictaphones) Deliver: Standalone courses for staff/students at key stages Joined-up training – planning/starting/finish a project Open science & expert exchange events Joined-up training RDM to Open Science Case studies on good practice

Challenges Health data often held in complex formats that can’t be converted without functionality loss – sheer curation International legal & ethical standards must be considered to enable sharing 1000 researchers vs. 1 RDM person - must prioritise where and how support is provided Busy people will forget! Communication must be timely, aimed at appropriate level and repeated to ensure take-up

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Thank You! Gareth Knight Research Data Manager London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Gareth.knight@lshtm.ac.uk

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