In the latest instalment of my series of blog posts discussing best practice in ORDO, I’m going to highlight some of the datasets underpinning PhD theses that have been deposited in ORDO.

Like OU research staff, postgraduate researchers are expected to deposit any research data underpinning their theses in a trusted data repository.  There are numerous benefits to doing this, including:

• enabling verification of results
• increasing your visibility as a researcher (great for career progression)
• ensuring that you have continued access to your data even when you have left the OU
• providing the possibility for re-use of data

Historically, research data or other digital materials underpinning theses have sometimes been put on a CD and enclosed with the hard copy of the thesis, lodged at the Library. However, from August 2019, the OU Library will only accept digital copies of theses which will be stored in ORO. This means that the old method of putting data onto CDs will no longer be possible.

Ideally, you should deposit your data or other materials in ORDO ahead of submission, so that you can include a Data Access Statement (which contains a DOI) within the body of your thesis.

Within the ORO record for your thesis, there is a field for “Related URLS” into which you can add your ORDO DOI as a “research dataset”. We also advise that you add the ORO URI to your ORDO record. We are looking into how we might be able to automate this process in the future.

A selection of datasets underpinning theses on ORDO

• Bedford, Candice (2019): Datasets of alteration features identified within the Bradbury Group, Murray formation and Stimson formation to sol 1482 in addition to the Vera Rubin Ridge locality.. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.8026157.v1 
• Buys, Kurijn (2017): Hybrid instrument evaluations. figshare. Collection. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.c.3715489.v1 
• Myint, Hnin (2019): Multi-view Table Tennis Ball Tracking Results. figshare. Media. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.7746203.v1 
• Pelusi, Angela (2019): Supplementary material for the thesis: Cues triggering formation and germination of resting stages in marine diatoms. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.8943305.v1  
• Wright, Jack (2019): Supporting digital material for MESSENGER Observations of Volcanism on Mercury: From Hokusai Quadrangle Down to Small Cones (thesis). figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.rd.8204792.v1