1. “I’m not a scientist, I don’t
have any research data”:
Managing arts and humanities
data
Nicola Siminson and Julie Ramage, GSA
Jeremy Barraud, UAL
Wednesday 30th
November 2016

2. Ramage, Julie and Hards, Lorna
(2016) Becoming Awesomestow -
profiling investments in cultural
assets and creative quarters in
British towns and their impact on
regeneration. Nesta, London.
http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/4289/
Ramage, Julie and Hards, Lorna
(2015) Becoming Awesomestow -
profiling investments in cultural
assets and creative quarters in
British towns and their impact on
regeneration. The Glasgow School
of Art - Reid Building, 11-26 April
2015 [Show/Exhibition]
http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/3698/

3. So what are the challenges?
“… I am not sure what constitutes research
data… What is data? I mean, I talk to you about
my data as a researcher, but for the institution,
what does it consider data? Would it be
conference proceedings, would a performance
be data even if it was not recorded, sometimes I
don’t record my performances…”

4. One definition
"Anything which is used or created to generate new
knowledge and interpretations. ‘Anything’ may be
objective or subjective; physical or emotional; persistent
or ephemeral; personal or public; explicit or tacit; and is
consciously or unconsciously referenced by the
researcher at some point during the course of their
research. Research data may or may not lead to a
research output, which regardless of method of
presentation, is a planned public statement of new
knowledge or interpretation."
Garrett, 2012:
https://kaptur.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/what-is-visual-arts-research-data-r

5. Data management challenge
• Research data in the arts is not so easily defined as in STEM
subjects
• Researchers need to learn to identify and define what is data
in their processes
• Researchers are not used to packaging and sharing data
• Management of highly diverse content and formats
• New and developing field – no real best practice in place

7. Policy aims
• To ensure that staff involved in the research process are
aware of their data-related responsibilities
• To ensure that the University meets its obligations with regard
to research data management, as defined by research
funders
• To make explicit the University’s institutional commitment to
good research data management practice
• The policy is supported by a set of procedures and
institutional awareness raising and training activities

8. What we’re doing at UAL
• UAL Data repository
• Training
• Data management planning
• Community of Practice

9. UAL Data Repository
• Holds UAL research data for all research projects where
there is a need to store and share the supporting research
• Research Council-funded projects with a Data Management
Plan
• Tested with existing, tricky data
• http://researchdata.arts.ac.uk/

12. ROCOCO project
• File formats - as open source as much as possible for wider
access and preservation issues
• File sizes – maintaining quality of digital files against file sizes
• Organisation - needs to be logical and cohesive, contextual
• Labelling of individual files
• Legal considerations: IP, copyright, Data Protection, release
forms

13. Data management planning
• Established workflow as part of Data Management Policy
• Workflow covers, pre-award, post-award and post-project
stages
• Bespoke support for each application

14. Community of Practice
• Introduction to data management
• Case studies
• Visiting institution: Glasgow School of Art
• Metadata discovery
• File formats

15. Future developments
• Further repository enhancements to fit the needs of the
researchers
• New methods of marking and visualising the data
• Developing best practice in the curation of data
• Educating practice-based researchers on the need to
organise and share their data

16. What we are (and
have been) doing at the GSA
• GSA RDM Policy – and roadmap document
• Training and comm.s
• sessions for staff – and research students
• one-to-one conversations
• blog posts
• RDM pages on GSA’s VLE
• GSA RDM Stakeholder Group
• participation in projects (KAPTUR; VADS4R)

17. How do you get Art & Design
researchers to engage with RDM, if
there are few external drivers / sticks
(e.g. very little RCUK funding)?

18. Sharing experiences and
ideas for engaging with arts
and humanities
researchers?

19. Useful information
• GSA RDM Policy: http://www.gsa.ac.uk/about-gsa/key-
information/institutional-policies/
• KAPTUR: http://www.vads.ac.uk/kaptur and
https://kaptur.wordpress.com/about/
• VADS4R: http://www.vads4r.vads.ac.uk/
• RADAR: http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/
• RADAR blog: https://gsaradar.wordpress.com/
• Contact details:
• n.siminson@gsa.ac.uk
• j.ramage@gsa.ac.uk
• j.t.barraud@arts.ac.uk