Managing and sharing research data

Researchers are increasingly expected - or even obliged - to share their data. Managing and sharing your data properly also has a number of benefits for you as a researcher, and is best taken care of through a data management plan.

The principles of FAIR data management

As researcher, you are responsible for handling your own data correctly and in line with rules and practices for research data management and sharing.

Note that as UiO employees, legally speaking, the university owns your data and is responsible for any breach of data protection laws.

Benefits and drivers

Both at EU and national levels, funders increasingly adopt policies in support of open science, i.e. open access to publications and data. The basic reasoning is that publicly funded research data are a public good produced in the public interest. Data sharing morover allows for research results to be validated, and is expected to lead to more scientific breakthroughs.

Screenshot from Sarah Jones' FOSTER webinar, see full reference below

Researchers are expected to have an explicit focus on data management throughout the lifecycle of the research, from the planning stage, through creating and selecting your data, via documentation and storage, to sharing and preservation. This is best secured by means of a data mangement plan (DMP).

Data management plan

A DMP describes the types of data collected, processed and/or generated by a project. It includes information on how the data will be handled to ensure compliance with the principles of FAIR data management: making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

  • What data will be collected, processed and/or generated?
  • Which methodology and standards will be applied?
  • Will the data be shared/made open access?
  • How will the data be curated and preserved (including after the end of the project)?
Screenshot from Sarah Jones' FOSTER webinar, see full reference below

Requirements

For collaborative H2020 projects (GLOBUS, PLATO, EU3D) an overall DMP of the project outlines the types of data to be collected, standards and procedures. Individual researchers must provide their detailed dataset descriptions - both for primary and secondary data - in line with a project-specific template.

Projects funded by the Norwegian Research Council are now also required to create data management plans.

Examples

Data types

Metadata

  • Describes the data and allows for discovery and analysis
  • Examples: creator, access conditions, collection methods, time references, structure and organisation of data files, data formats, variable names, labels and descriptions of variables and values, codes for missing values, hard- and software used to process and analyse the data, keywords
  • Use established metadata for the social sciences, i.e. Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), which is an international standard for describing social science data

Storage and archiving

  1. Data collection and analysing phase: Consider security, backup, sensitivity of data. UiO resources and guidelines:
  2. Archiving phase: Long-term storage in a certified repository (i.e. NSD)

Sharing

The general principle is that you make data as open as possible, as closed as necessary. It is possible not to share your data, but you will have to justify it.

When sharing your data, it is recommended that you apply a CC license to manage copyright and terms & conditions for the reuse of your data.

Balancing open access and data protection

Definition of open data: 'Open data and content can be freely used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose' (http://opendefinition.org).

A number of questions must be considered and addressed in your DMP:

  • Can you share?
  • Who owns the data?
  • Have you got consent for sharing?
  • Do any licences you have signed permit sharing?
  • Is the data in suitable formats?
  • Is there enough documentation (for others to understand your data)

Read more

Screenshot from Sarah Jones' FOSTER webinar, see full reference below

Recommended webinars

Other resources

Published Mar. 13, 2019 12:51 PM - Last modified Mar. 18, 2019 8:25 PM
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