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Managing your data

Research Data Management

Research Data Management (RDM) is the process of making sure data is properly obtained, labelled, stored and in due course made available to other researchers.

RDM is the planning for the proper methodologically accurate, ethical and efficient gathering of data, its safe storage and appropriate labelling for sharing in an interoperability enabling format. It aims to ensure reliable verification of results and permits new and innovative research built on existing information. Always refer to the university’s data protection policy.

Research Data Management requires the appropriate and timely creation of a Data Management Plan.

  • Data management plans

    The University Research Data Management Policy states ‘Researchers should routinely create a Data Management Plan (DMP) for any research project and must do so for any project that requires University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) approval‘.

    A Data Management Plan (DMP) will describe how the research team intend to:

    • Create data and plan for its use
    • Organise, structure, and name data
    • Store it – make it secure, provide access, back it up
    • Share the data

    A DMP is an essential working document to facilitate effective data management. Making your DMP itself available through the repository is also worth considering, and in some funding cases may be necessary.

    You can make your DMP ‘Open’ through the UWL Repository. When uploading a new item (find out more on our making your published papers and books Open Access page) select ‘Report’ from the ‘Type’ options. You can then select the 'Report' option ‘Data Management Plan’.

    ESRC have produced an excellent checklist to follow when developing a DMP. Visit the UK Data Service website for more information.

    The Digital Curation Centre has created DMPonline proformas for all major research funders, and for general purpose Data Management Plans. They have provided some examples of DMPs (DCC website) in relation to various funders and their requirements, and also for more general purposes.

    ARGOS, produced by OpenAire is another source of DMP guidance.

Why Open Data is important

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The University research data management (RDM) policy states:

The University actively supports the principle of open access to the research data of its researchers, wherever this is appropriate".

There are several reasons to share data such as compliance with research funder requirements. But also:

  • Compliance with research funder requirements
  • Increase in research impact
  • Enabling other researchers to build on or validate results
  • Potential creation of new opportunities for collaboration.
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Open data can be freely used, modified, and shared. It is made available under an open licence like Creative Commons. Not all data can be made open due to commercial or personal data considerations.

However, data must always be FAIR:

  • Findable
  • Accessible
  • Interoperable (conform to recognised formats and standards to allow combination and exchange)
  • Reusable

Whether fully open access or not. Visit the OpenAIRE website to find out more about the FAIR principles.

If your research is funded by UKRI, visit their publishing your research findings (UKRI website) page on making your data open. Although open data isn’t yet required by UKRI and the REF it is likely to become so in the near future. GDPR requires consent to be obtained if you are sharing personal data. If you are anonymising the data consent for sharing isn’t required but it is still ethically appropriate.

Data repositories

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Large data sets capable of being applied in many contexts are often peer-reviewed and published in relevant journals. Most data sets do not undergo peer review before publication but are made available via data repositories.

Repositories are suitable for long-term preservation and sharing of research results, but not for data management in ongoing projects. Storing data in a repository (after the research project is concluded) is also the recommended way to comply with Open Data requirements set by an increasing number of funding agencies. UK Data Service or Zenodo are recommended.

Visit the re3data website or DataCite Commons website for other appropriate repositories or contact the Open Research team for advice.

Get in touch

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Open Research team

Get in touch with Dr Marc Forster from the Open Research team for help and advice at open.research@uwl.ac.uk.

Library team

In-person: Visit the Help Zone, ground floor at our Ealing & Reading sites. Find out the library opening hours.

Email us: library@uwl.ac.uk

Telephone:  Ealing: 020 8231 2405  /  Reading: 020 8209 4434  (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

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