Presentation by Gareth Knight of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It was presented at the LSHTM Research Data Services workshop on June 30th 2015, an event organised to mark the end of LSHTM's Wellcome Trust funded RDM project.

1. AN RDM SERVICE FOR
HEALTH RESEARCHERS
A case study of work performed at LSHTM
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
UK: England & Wales License
Gareth Knight
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
gareth.knight@lshtm.ac.uk
Research Data Services workshop
30 June 2015

2. Overview
1. Institutional context
2. Motivation for establishing an RDM Service
3. Determining needs and building support structure
4. Enhancing RDM Practice
5. Next steps and conclusion

3. London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Postgraduate institute for research and
education in public health & tropical
medicine
• Research funding exceeds £60 million a year
• Recognised as one of world’s highest rated
universities for collaborative research
• 4000 students & 1,300 staff working
in 100+ countries

4. Research Data Initiative 2009-11
Researcher as initial champion:
• Personal pride: High-quality data should be produced & made available
• Support requirement: Huge time commitment to support end user
Research Data Working Group
• Established in Feb 2010 to:
– advise institution on RDM/Open Data development
– Produce recommendations for next steps
• Membership comprised of research staff,
librarians, archivists, and other staff
• ‘Raising Standards’ Study Recommendations
fully accepted by SMT in mid 2011
Report available: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/outputs/

5. RDM Support Service
Broad remit to enhance data management practice
and improve infrastructure within institution
• Located in Library & Archives Service
• Funded by:
– Wellcome Trust ISSF: 2012 – 15
– Central funding: 2015 onwards
• RDM Steering Group provides
direction on a Management by
Exception (MbE) basis
Project Blog: http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/outputs/
RDM Website: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/researchdataman/

6. RDM Service Challenges
Reaching audience
•Many researchers work overseas
for 50% / 100% of time
•Too busy to respond to emails /
telephone
Establishing buy-in
•What are the benefits?
•Many researchers are supported
by funding with no data
management requirements
•Uncertainty on how it applies to
their field
Providing domain expertise
•Scientific discipline requires
years of study & have specific
language
•Specialised tools & resources –
limited conversion options and
few recognised preservation
formats
Dealing with conflicting
requirements
•What do you do when funders &
governments disagree?
Supporting collaborative
research
•What support should/can you
provide to collaborators at other
institutions?
Managing with
limited resources
•Staff must support large no. of
researchers
•Time commitment for one-to-
one support

7. Establishing buy-in
Tailoring message to key stakeholders
Researchers &
Data Creators
Improve likelihood of
research funding
Potential to use data in
further research
Fulfil publisher
obligations & achieve
higher rate of citation
Save time & effort
Principal
Investigators
& Head of Dept
Contribution to
“reproducible research”
agenda
Enhanced data handling
practice & less
duplication of effort
Greater take-up of
research outputs in
research & teaching
Senior
Management
Better able to achieve
strategic goals to maximise
research impact
Build capacity within
institution &
collaborators
Remain competitive
with other institutions
Ensure compliance with
regulatory and
contractual obligations

8. Requirements Gathering
Survey/interviews with researchersResearch Data WG report
Funder & Regulators
http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/outputs/
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/researchdataman/
Advisory bodies

9. Resource development
Providing RDM support using limited resources
Plan
proposal
Project
Start
Project
End
Possible
deletion
Identify
RDM
resources
Develop
funder
DMP
Create &
store data
Journal data
needs
Data
sharing
agreement
Prepare data
for deposit
Data
description
Preservation &
sharing Qs
RDM Website Training sessions RDM videos

10. Responding to evolving needs
Support requests:
• Monitor demand over time
– 88 (2013)
– 120 (2014)
– 69 (Jan-May 2015)
• Produce/Update guidance to reflect
common questions
Data Management Plans
• Tailored feedback on request
• Produce sample DMPs for common funders
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/researchdataman/plan/
Top 10 RDM topics raised in 2014
http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/support-planning/

11. Enhancing RDM Practice
Mandate that projects without a funder DMP obligation should produce
a institutional DMP
Strategy for minimising resource allocation:
1. Prioritise key projects: LSHTM-led projects are mandated, consultancies &
others encouraged
2. Avoid duplication: Allow projects to submit a Research Protocol or other
DMP if they have produced one
3. Acquire DMPs for funded projects only: Analysis of 2013 funding bids
found that:
– 247 met eligibility criteria at pre-award
– 97 met eligibility criteria at post-award
Ensure Data Management is considered from outset

12. End of project support
Guidance on ‘data archiving’ process:
• (re)familiarisation with
funder/publisher requirements
• Prepare data for transfer
– Redaction,
– Formats & documentation
– Access controls & licences
• Locating appropriate repository
– Domain repository preferred
– LSHTM data repository for non-
sensitive ‘homeless data’
Liaise with projects in final 3 months of funding
http://datacompass.lshtm.ac.uk/

13. Next Steps
Operate ‘business as usual’ service:
• RDM ‘Help desk’
• Promote & populate research data repository
• Development of tutorials, guides & other resources
Consult with key stakeholders to identify additional topics:
• Integration of repository with infrastructure (such as CRIS)
• Case studies on ‘Cradle to grave’ data management in specific
depts/environments
• Case studies on working with sensitive data

14. Concluding thoughts
• Institutional size simplifies process of introducing new policy
– Remains a need to present at various groups & obtain broad acceptance
• Health researchers recognise importance of data to their work, but
still need to be convinced to apply specific practices
• Effective use of staff resources is essential to support varied research
needs
• Data Manager/researcher collaboration is necessary to tailor
resources to specific fields

15. Thank You for your attention!
Gareth Knight.
Project Manager, LSHTM Research Data Management Service
Email: gareth.knight@lshtm.ac.uk
Questions