October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Slides provided by the DaMaRO Project, University of Oxford Research Services

October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 2 What is research data management?  Research data is all the information you make use of in your research  Structured data (in databases, tables, etc.)  Unstructured data (in textual sources, images, audio recordings, personal notes, s, 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 Data management basics  Do your current methods of dealing with information allow you to find what you need, when you need it?  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?  The HFS service offers free back-up to graduates and staffHFS  Do you have access to space on a departmental server?  Synchronization software (e.g. Dropbox) can help if you use multiple computersDropbox October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 3

Research Services Data management tools  Are you using the best tools for the task in hand?  Don’t struggle on with the wrong software or technique just because it’s what you know  If you’ve ever thought ‘I wish I could…’, maybe someone else has, too – and has written some software to make it possible  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 websiteResearch Skills Toolkit  You could also ask colleagues for recommendations, or search for online reviews October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 4

Research Services Longer term goals  If you return to your data in a year or two, will it still be intelligible?  Does the format make it clear what everything means?  Are there abbreviations that need explanation?  Is the data adequately documented?  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? October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 5

Research Services Data sharing and curation  Data sharing is…  Good practice – helps make the most of data  Good for you – improve your citation rate  Now required by most major funders  Much easier if planned for early on in a project  Is the data in an appropriate format? Does it have the relevant documentation and metadata?  Are there confidentiality or IP issues?  Consider depositing data in a repository or archive  There are many subject-specific repositories  In the near future, Oxford will offer DataBank (an institutional digital data archive) and DataFinder (a catalogue of datasets) October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 6

Research Services Training and advice  The Oxford University Research Data Management website provides information and guidanceResearch Data Management website  Covers data management planning, back-up and security, sharing and archiving, and more  Bodleian Libraries can advise on curation and description of datasets (metadata), and will be able to assign DOIs Bodleian Libraries  IT Services has a dedicated Research Support teamResearch Support  The IT Learning Programme offers courses on a wide range of software, technologies, and skillsIT Learning Programme  Visit the Skills Hub (on WebLearn) for details of other training opportunitiesSkills Hub October 24, 2015 Research data management – a brief introduction Page 7