This slideshow was used in a Preparing Your Research Data for the Future course taught in the Social Sciences Division, University of Oxford, on 2015-03-02. It provides an overview of some key issues, focusing on long-term data management, sharing, and curation.

1. Slides provided by the Research Support
Team, IT Services, University of Oxford
Preparing Your Research Data
for the Future
What You Can Do Now to Avoid
Problems Later

2. 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
Preparing your research
data for the future

3. What does data include?
Any information you use in your
research
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

4. What is research data management?
Storage
Organizing
Preservation
Documenting
Sharing
Choosing
technology
Versioning
Structuring
Backing up
Curation
Security
Preparing your research
data for the future

5. Thinking ahead is vital
 Easy to think of long term data
management as only relevant to the end
of a project
 But many aspects
need planning from the
beginning
Preparing your research
data for the future

6. Carrots and sticks
 Work efficiently and
with minimum hassle
over the lifetime of the
project
 Save time and avoid
problems in the future
 Make it easy to share
your data
 University of Oxford
Policy on the
Management of
Research Data and
Records
 Funding body
requirements
Preparing your research
data for the future

7. University of Oxford policy
Introduced July 2012
Preparing your research
data for the future

8. University of Oxford policy
 The full policy can be viewed on the Research
Data Oxford website
 Covers 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
Preparing your research
data for the future

9. University of Oxford policy
 Research data should be retained for ‘as long as they
are of continuing value to the researcher and the wider
research community’ – but a minimum of three years
 Specific requirements from funders take precedence
 Researchers are responsible for:
 Developing and documenting clear data management
procedures
 Planning for the ongoing custodianship of their data
 Ensuring legal, ethical, and funding body requirements are met
 Policy applies to University staff and doctoral students
Preparing your research
data for the future

10. 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
Preparing your research
data for the future

11. Why share data? Reuse
 Reduces duplication of
effort
 Allows public research
funding to be used more
effectively
 Use in contexts not
currently envisaged
 Extend research beyond
your discipline
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

12. Why share data? Reputation
 Get credit for high quality
research
 Recognition for contribution
to research community
 Open data leads to increased
citations
 Of the data itself
 Of associated papers
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

13. Why share data? Be a trailblazer!
 A paradigm shift in how research outputs are
viewed is occurring
 Data outputs are of increasing importance –
and are likely to become even more so
 E.g. journals looking to publish
datasets alongside articles
 Be at the forefront of an
important shift in the
academic world
Preparing your research
data for the future

14. DOCUMENTATION AND
METADATA
Preparing your research
data for the future

15. Documentation and metadata
 Documentation is the contextual information
required to make data intelligible and aid
interpretation
 A users’ guide to your data
 May be given at study level or data level
 Metadata is similar, but usually more structured
 Conforms to set standards
 Machine readable
Preparing your research
data for the future

16. Make material understandable
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
Preparing your research
data for the future

17. Make material verifiable and reusable
• Detailing methods helps
people understand what
you did
• And helps make your
work reproducible
• Provide context to
minimize the risk of
misunderstanding or
misuse
Image by woodleywonderworks , via Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4588700881/
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

18. Preparing your research
data for the future

19. Exercise
 In small groups, look at the sample data sheet
 Imagine you have just downloaded this dataset from an
archive
 What contextual or explanatory information is missing?
 Anything odd about the data that needs clarifying?
 What additional documentation
would you like to see supplied
 At the data level?
 At the study level?
Preparing your research
data for the future

20. • Who created it, 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 to include
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

21. Metadata – data about data
 A formal,
structured
description
of a dataset
 Used by
archives
to create
catalogue
records
Preparing your research
data for the future

22. Missing metadata – or the riddle of the
sixth toe
 This painting shows
Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire as Diana
 … or maybe Cynthia
 She has six toes – but
no one knows why
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgiana_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Devonshire_as_Diana.jpg
Preparing your research
data for the future

23. KEEPING YOUR DATA SAFE
Preparing your research
data for the future

24. http://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2011/08/01/why-you-need-a-data-management-plan/
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future
You can only
preserve what
you still have…
… and backing
up is easier
than replacing
lost data

25. Make multiple copies…
…and keep them in different places
Automate the
process if you can
Preparing your research
data for the future
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

26. 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
 http://www.it.ox.ac.uk/hfs
Preparing your research
data for the future

27. Think about your storage media…
Preparing your research
data for the future
… and about file formats
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

28. Data security
 If you’re working with sensitive data, it’s
essential to ensure that every copy kept has
appropriate security
 InfoSec at IT Services can provide advice
 http://www.it.ox.ac.uk/infosec/
Preparing your research
data for the future

29. For discussion
 What data management
challenges have you
encountered?
 What strategies have you
personally found useful?
Preparing your research
data for the future

30. WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END
OF THE PROJECT?
Preparing your research
data for the future

31. Repositories and archives
 Data repositories or archives offer a secure
long-term home for research data
 Key repositories include the
UK Data Archive and the
Archaeology Data Service
 Re3Data.org and Databib
offer searchable
catalogues of repositories
Preparing your research
data for the future

32. ORA-Data
 The University of Oxford’s institutional data archive
 Currently in pilot phase - full launch in summer 2015
 Long term preservation for Oxford research datasets
without another natural home
 Datasets will be assigned DOIs
 Depositors can opt to make
datasets publicly available,
embargoed for a fixed period,
or hidden
Preparing your research
data for the future

33. ORA-Data
 ORA-Data will sit alongside ORA-Publications to form a
composite University archive
 Will also function as a catalogue of Oxford-created
data held in other archives
 Researchers depositing data
elsewhere strongly encouraged
to add a record to ORA-Data
 http://ox.libguides.com/
about-ora-data
Preparing your research
data for the future

34. Figshare
 Figshare is a free online data sharing platform
 Shared research is allocated a DataCite DOI
 A possible alternative to conventional repositories
 Where no suitable
repository is
available
 If you need a data
sharing solution in
a hurry
Preparing your research
data for the future

35. Video by NYU Health Sciences Libraries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zK3sAtr-4
Preparing your research
data for the future

36. Data sharing – concerns
 Ethical concerns
 Confidential or sensitive data
 Legal concerns
 Third party data
 Professional concerns
 Intended publication
 Commercial issues (e.g. patent protection)
Preparing your research
data for the future

37. Plan for sharing from the beginning
 Appropriate consent from interview
subjects
 UK Data Archive provides sample consent forms
 Distinguish third
party and new data
Preparing your research
data for the future

38.  Redact or embargo if there is good reason
Share – but maybe not everything
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
data for the future

39. Data licensing
 A licence clarifies the conditions for accessing
and making use of a dataset
 Lets users know
 What’s allowed without asking further
permission
 How to cite the work
 Specific requests to go beyond the
terms of the licence can still be made
Preparing your research
data for the future

40. Data licences - examples
 Creative Common licences
 Widely used and recognized
 Six different flavours, plus CC0
public domain dedication
 Open Data Commons
 Specifically designed for datasets
 Recognizes the structure/content
distinction for databases
Preparing your research
data for the future

41. Data licensing - guidance
 ‘How to License Research Data’
 A guide from the Digital Curation Centre
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data
Preparing your research
data for the future

42. DATA MANAGEMENT
PLANNING
Preparing your research
data for the future

43. Data management plans
 Ideally created in the early stages of a project
 While planning, applying for funding, or setting up
 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
Preparing your research
data for the future

44. Exercise
 Have a go at drafting a data management plan
for your own research
 If there are questions you can’t answer at this
stage, make a note of
 What you need to find out
 Decisions you need to make
Preparing your research
data for the future

45. DMP Online
 Create a data
management plan
using the DMP
Online tool
 Developed by the
DCC – a national
service providing
advice and
resources
https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
data for the future

46. ‘In preparing for
battle, I have always
found that plans are
useless but planning
is indispensable.’
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preparing your research
data for the future

47. FURTHER INFORMATION AND
RESOURCES
Preparing your research
data for the future

48. Research data Oxford website
 Oxford’s central
advisory website
 University policy
is available
 Questions?
Email
researchdata
@ox.ac.uk
http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
data for the future

49. 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,
building a database, etc.
 Meet with someone for a research data MOT
 For more information, see:
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
data for the future

50. Research Skills Toolkit
 Website and hands-
on workshops
 A guide to software,
University services,
and other tools and
resources for
research
Preparing your research
data for the future
http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/

51. IT Learning Programme
 Over 200 different IT
courses
 Covering software, skills,
and new technologies
 ITLP Portfolio offers
course materials and
other resources
Preparing your research
data for the future
http://portfolio.it.ox.ac.uk/
http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/

52. ORDS – Online Research Database
Service
 Specifically designed for academic research data
 Create, edit, search, and share databases online
 Cloud-hosted and automatically backed up
 Designed to make key tasks straightforward
 Collaboration
 Publishing datasets
 Archiving data at end of project
 http://ords.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
data for the future

53. 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/
Preparing your research
data for the future

54. Research Data MANTRA
 Free online
interactive
training modules
 Aimed at
postgraduates
and early career
researchers
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/
Preparing your research
data for the future

55. Any questions?
Ask now, or email us on
researchdata@ox.ac.uk
Slides and handouts available from
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/rdmcourses
Preparing your research
data for the future

56. Rights and re-use
 This presentation is part of a series of research data management
training resources prepared by the IT Services Research Support
Team at the University of Oxford
 The slideshow is based on one developed during the Oxford-based
DaMaRO Project. Parts of it also draw on teaching materials
produced by the PrePARe Project, DATUM for Health, and DataTrain
Archaeology
 With the exception of clip art used with permission from Microsoft,
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
Preparing your research
data for the future