Presentation given to creative arts PhD students at the 'Processes and Outcomes, Paths and Products' conference on 20th November at the CCA, Glasgow

1. What is Research Data Management
and why does it matter?
Sarah Jones & Joy Davidson
HATII, University of Glasgow
sarah.jones@glasgow.ac.uk
joy.davidson@glasgow.ac.uk
Funded by:
•POPP conference, CCA, Glasgow

2. What is research data?
All manner of things that you produce
in the course of your research

3. Defining research data
Research data are collected, observed or created, for
the purposes of analysis to produce and validate
original research results
Both analogue and digital materials are 'data'
Digital data can be:
created in a digital form ("born digital")
converted to a digital form (digitised)

4. What is research data management?
5.
Preservation
1. “the active management and
Create
& Re-Use
appraisal of data over the
lifecycle of scholarly and
scientific interest”
4.
2.
Deposit
Active Use
PhD & Data
Data management is part of
3.
Selection &
good research practice
Evaluation

5. Why manage your data well?
- so you can find and understand it when needed
- to avoid unnecessary duplication
- so you can finish your PhD!
- to validate results if required
- so your research is visible and has impact
- to get credit when others cite your work

6. What is involved in RDM?
- Data management planning
- Creating data
- Documenting data
- Storing data
- Sharing data
- Preserving data

7. Good data management is about
making informed decisions

8. •http://xkcd.com/949

9. Data management planning
Write a brief plan at the start of your project to define:
• how your data will be created?
• how it will be documented?
• who will access it?
• where it will be stored?
• who will back it up?
• whether (and how) it will be shared & preserved?
DMPs are often submitted as part of grant applications,
but are useful whenever you’re creating data.

10. Data management planning: advice
Decide what do you (and others) want to do with the data?
 make decisions that allow for this
Talk to support staff to see which option works best
Use the guidance and templates that are available
DMP template for PhD students:
http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/research360/2012/03/postgraduate-
dmp-template-first-draft
How to write a DMP:
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/develop-data-plan

11. Creating data
What type and format of data will you create?
- formats may be determined by the tools/software you use
- common, widespread formats may be better to enable reuse
How will you create your data?
- What methodologies and standards will you use?
- How will you address ethical concerns and protect participants?
- Will you control variations to provide quality assurance?

12. Creating data: advice
Data can take many forms
• Still images, video & audio
• Notebooks & lab books
• Survey results & interview transcripts
• Experimental observations
• Text corpuses
• Models & software
• ….

13. Good formats for long-term access
• Unencrypted
• Uncompressed
• Non-proprietary/patent-encumbered
• Open, documented standard
• Standard representation (ASCII, Unicode)
Type Recommended Avoid for data sharing
Tabular data CSV, TSV, SPSS portable Excel
Text Plain text, HTML, RTF Word
PDF/A only if layout matters
Media Container: MP4, Ogg Quicktime
Codec: Theora, Dirac, FLAC H264
Images TIFF, JPEG2000, PNG GIF, JPG
Structured data XML, RDF RDBMS
•Further examples: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/format/formats-table

14. Use existing models
Sample consent form from
Managing and Sharing Data
a guide by UK Data Archive
http://data-archive.ac.uk/media/
2894/managingsharing.pdf

15. Documenting data
What information do users need to understand the data?
- descriptions of all variables / fields and their values
- code labels, classification schema, abbreviations list
- information about the project and data creators
- tips on usage e.g. exceptions, quirks, questionable results
How will you capture this?
Are there standards you can use?

16. Documenting data: advice
Document at the time – it’s hard to do later, as you
forget
Think about how to name, structure & version your files
www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/choosing-a-file-name
Record contextual information in a text file (such as a
‘read me’ file) in the same directory as the data
Be consistent so your first year data makes sense when
you come to write up!

17. Storing data
What is available to you?
What facilities do you need?
- remote access to work from home
- file sharing with others
- high-levels of security for sensitive data
How will the data be backed up?

18. Storing data: advice
Speak to your local IT Team for advice
Use managed storage (i.e. the uni network) if possible
Remember that all storage is fallible – need to back-up if
this is not already done for you (e.g. by uni)
- keep 2+ copies on different types of media in different locations
- manage back-ups (migrate media, test integrity)
Choose appropriate methods to transfer / share data
- email, dropbox, ftp, encrypted media, filestore, VREs...

19. One copy = risk of data loss
•CC image by momboleum on Flickr
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20. Sharing & preserving data
Are you expected to share / preserve your data?
Do you need to destroy some data e.g. because of consent
How will you share your data - can anyone help?

21. Sharing & preserving data: advice
Know what you’re expected to share/preserve (or not!)
Use available data centres - http://datacite.org/repolist
Share your data where possible
- there are benefits!
More citations: 69% ↑
(Piwowar, 2007 in PLoS)

22. Tips for managing your data
Find out what support is available
– Speak to the library & local IT support
– Ask your supervisor for advice
– Check out what facilities are in your department
– See what others in your discipline are doing
Training course on managing creative arts
data
www.projectcairo.org/module/unit1-0.html

23. Thanks - any questions?
For DCC guidance, tools and case studies see:
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources
Follow us on twitter @digitalcuration and #ukdcc
Content for various slides adapted from Research360 project at University of Bath

24. Discussion exercise
• What types of data are you creating?
• What issues do you have in managing your data?
– Storage & backup
– Accessing data from home
– Understanding your data
– ...
• What have you learnt that may help in the future?