An Introduction to Research Data Management Things To Do With Data – Michaelmas 2014

An Introduction to Research Data Management Things To Do With Data – Michaelmas 2014

Slides provided by Research Support Team, IT Services, University of Oxford

What does data include?

“A reinterpretable representation of information in a formalized manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.”

Digital Curation Centre

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

What does data include?

Any information you use in your research

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

What does research data management cover?

Storage

Organizing

Preservation

Documenting

Sharing

Choosing technology

Versioning

Structuring

Backing up

Curation

Security

Relevant throughout the research process

Planning and

applying for funding

Setting up and

starting work

Day-to-day work

during the project

Project conclusion

Carrots and sticks

Enable efficient day-to-day work

More time for the meat of the research process

Avoid problems in the future

University of Oxford Policy on the Management of Research Data and Records

Funding body requirements

University of Oxford policy

Introduced July 2012

University of Oxford policy

The full policy can be viewed on the Research Data Oxford website

Research data is defined as the information needed ‘to support or validate a research project’s observations, findings or outputs’

Research data should be: Accurate, complete, identifiable,

retrievable, and securely stored Able to be made available to others

Funders’ requirements

Funding bodies are taking an increasing interest in what happens to research data

You may be required to make data publicly available at the end of a project

Many funders require a data management plan as part of grant applications

RDO website provides a summary of requirements

Planning and

applying for

funding

Setting up and

starting work

Day-to-day work

during the project

Project conclusion

Data management plans

A document created early on in a project While planning, applying for funding, or setting up

An initial plan may be expanded later Details plans and expectations for data

Nature of data and its creation or acquisition

Storage and security

Preservation and sharing

Benefits of data management plans

Ask key questions before problems arise Have time to look for solutions

Saves time and reduces stress Many tasks are straightforward if planned from

the beginning, but much harder in retrospect A framework for ongoing review of data

management practices

DMP Online

Online data management planning tool

Can be customized according to funding body

https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/

Planning and

applying for funding

Setting up and starting

work

Day-to-day work

during the project

Project conclusion

What storage media are in use?

How about file formats?

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

Storage

Departmental IT support may be able to provide server space or a shared drive

IT Services’ NSMS offers server rental and management, storage on the University’s private cloud, and other storage solutions

Data security

Is there data that needs special treatment?

Sensitive or confidential information

Commercial potential InfoSec at IT Services can provide advice –

see http://www.it.ox.ac.uk/infosec/ for more details

http://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2011/08/01/why-you-need-a-data-management-plan/

Backing up is easier than replacing lost data…

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

LOCKSS – Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe

Keep copies in different places

Can the process be automated?

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

IT Services: data back-up on the HFS

HFS is Oxford’s central back-up and archiving service

Free of charge to University staff and postgraduates

Automated back-ups of machines connected to University network

Copies kept in multiple places

Choosing the right tools for the job

Are current software and methods meeting your needs?

Sticking with old familiars can be false economy

Ask friends and colleagues for recommendations

Tools and technologies for managing data

Spreadsheets may be fine for small, straightforward tasks

More complex projects might benefit from a relational database

Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro, etc. Or a qualitative data analysis package

Nvivo, Atlas.ti, etc. Or an XML database...

ORDS – Online Research Database Service

Specifically designed for academic research data Cloud-hosted and automatically backed up Web interface makes collaboration straightforward If desired, databases can easily be made public Designed to permit easy archiving Launched in the summer of 2014 http://ords.ox.ac.uk/

Other data management tools and systems

LabTrove – an electronic lab notebook system NeuroHub – an information environment for

managing data from lab-based research DataStage – a secure personalized file

management environment myExperiment – record and

share scientific workflows Taverna – for managing

scientific workflows

Research Skills Toolkit

Website and hands-on workshops

A guide to software, University services, and other tools and resources for research

http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/

Planning and

applying for funding

Setting up and

starting work

Day-to-day

work during

the project

Project conclusion

What’s obvious now might not be in a few months, years, decades…

Adapted from ‘Clay Tablets with Linear B Script’ by Dennis, via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/5692813531/

MAKE SURE YOU CAN

UNDERSTAND IT LATER

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

Documentation and metadata

Documentation is the contextual information required to make data intelligible and aid interpretation

A users’ guide to data

May be given at study level or data level

Metadata is similar, but usually more structured

Conforms to set standards

Machine readable<tit

le>2014

HBS Surv

ey

Results<

/title>

<author>

Joe Blog

gs

</author

>

M. F

arinelli et al. (2012) P

LoS O

NE

7(3): e34047

• Who created the data, when and why

• Description of the item• Methodology and methods• Units of measurement• Definitions of jargon,

acronyms and code• References to related data

Documentation – what needs to be included

?www.texample.net

Slide adapted from the PrePARe Project

Maintaining consistency

Agree a set of standard working practices as early as possible in a project

Method of recording what’s been done to data – and who did it

File naming conventions

Version information Have these clearly documented, and

store the documentation centrally

Planning and

applying for funding

Setting up and

starting work

Day-to-day work during the

project

Project conclusion

Long term solutions

Data repositories or archives offer a secure long-term home for research data

Data can be embargoed if needed Databib and Re3Data.org offer searchable

catalogues of repositories Figshare offers a DIY option

ORA-Data (formerly known as DataBank)

University of Oxford’s institutional data archive Will work alongside ORA-Publications to form a

composite University archive Long term preservation for datasets without

another natural home Plus records for data

archived elsewhere

Planning ahead

Data sharing needs to be planned from the beginning of a project

With sensitive data, consent may be needed

Third party data may come with restrictions If data is destined for a particular archive, they

may have specific requirements

Do they use a specific metadata schema, for example?

Data licensing

A licence clarifies the conditions for accessing and making use of a dataset

User knows what’s allowed without asking further permission

Doesn’t exclude possibility of specific requests to go beyond the terms of the licence

Licences used for data include Creative Commons and Open Data Commons

Further resources

Digital Curation Centre

A national service providing advice and resources for the whole research data lifecycle

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/

UK Data Archive

Largest UK collection of social sciences and humanities data

Advice on best practice for creating, preparing, storing and sharing data

http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/

IT Services: Research Support Team

Can assist with technical aspects of research projects at all stages of the project lifecycle

Help with DMPs, selecting software or storage, modelling data, etc.

But the earlier you seek advice, the better For more information, see: http

://research.it.ox.ac.uk/

Research Data Oxford website

Oxford’s central advisory website

University policy is available

Questions? Email researchdata@ox.ac.uk

http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/

Any questions?

Ask now, or email us onresearchdata@ox.ac.uk

Rights and re-use

This presentation is part of a series of research data management training resources prepared by the Research Support Team at IT Services, University of Oxford.

Parts of this slideshow draw on material produced as part of the Oxford-based DaMaRO Project, and on resources produced by the PrePARe Project

With the exception of clip art used with permission from Microsoft, and commercial logos and trademarks, and images specifically credited to other sources, the slideshow is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License

Within the terms of this licence, we actively encourage sharing, adaptation, and re-use of this material