Category Archives: Data Management Plans

Training for postgraduate research students

This morning I ran a session for research students on research data management. The aim of the session was to go away with an outline of a data management plan to discuss with supervisors.

The session was well attended and generated lots of interesting discussion. Students used this template for an outline data management plan.

Slides are available on SlideShare and will also be uploaded to the VRE (Virtual Research Environment).

 

Have you got your licence?

I’ve recently been helping some colleagues in the Science faculty to put together a Data Management Plan for the EU funded Europlanet project (see my recent post for more information on the EU Horizon 2020 open data pilot).

licences

CCO Data by Auke Herrema

One of the issues we have been discussing is licensing research data. Assigning a licence to the data you share is important as providing clear guidance on what re-users can do with your data helps disentangle some of the complexities and ambiguities surrounding rights (of which there are many – different jurisdictions have different laws regarding copyright on data so things can get confusing). Licensing your data is a good way of clarifying the terms of use.

When choosing a licence it is important to consider how you want your data to be reused. You can then apply a licence that most closely reflects those intended uses. Applying an explicit licence removes any ambiguity over what users can and cannot do with your data.

Lawyers can craft licences to meet specific criteria, but there are a number of open licences developed for widespread use that anyone can apply. There are many advantages to using standard licences rather than bespoke ones; as well as the benefits of enhanced organisational efficiency and cost saving, the use of standard licensing terms can lead to greater interoperability of data and increased user awareness of the licence terms, thereby enabling better compliance.

creativecommons

Click to enlarge

The recommended licence type for data created/collected in Horizon 2020 projects is Creative Commons (although other options are available – see links below for more information). Creative Commons licences offer a sort of “pick and mix” approach, meaning that you can assign a variety of different conditions on reuse of your data to make the terms of reuse more or less open, as needed. Creative Commons licences are widely used and understood, so they are a good option for making the terms of use for your data more transparent to users.

For more information, check out the following links:

For help understanding issues surrounding licensing research data, email library-research-support@open.ac.uk 

Keep your eyes on the Horizon (2020)

horizon2020imageThis week I met with 2 research teams who are embarking on projects within the EU’s Horizon 2020 funding stream to talk about research data management and sharing. A novelty for Horizon 2020 is the introduction of a research data pilot, which is compulsory in a number of research areas, although other projects are invited (and encouraged) to opt-in.

Research areas affected are:

  • Future and Emerging Technologies
  • Research infrastructures
  • Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Information and Communication Technologies
  • Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology: ‘nanosafety’ and ‘modelling’ topics
  • Societal Challenge: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy – selected topics as specified in the work programme
  • Societal Challenge: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw materials – except raw materials
  • Societal Challenge: Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies
  • Science with and for Society
  • Cross-cutting activities – focus areas – part Smart and Sustainable Cities

One of the key deliverables for projects involved in the pilot is a data management plan (DMP) within the first 6 months. This plan describes the datasets to be produced; which standards and metadata will be employed; how and when data will be shared; and plans for the long-term preservation of data. More elaborated versions of the DMP can be delivered at later stages of the project, and at a minimum at the mid-term and final review.

dmponlineOne of the main issues concerning the development of DMPs and the management of data for the project teams I have been working with, is the international, multi-institutional nature of the projects. Different institutions will be collecting, managing and storing different datasets, so it is important that the DMP is a collaborative effort between all those responsible for doing so. Using DMPOnline, a tool designed by the DCC to write and share the plan will enable collaborative editing of the plan, with the ability to assign different permission levels to different users as appropriate. To find out more about data management plans and using DMPOnline visit the Data Management Planning page on the RDM intranet site (internal link only).

If you’re starting a Horizon 2020 project and would like advice and support for writing a data management plan, please email library-research-support@open.ac.uk

New Research Data Management guidance for projects

I’d like to tell you about 2 new guidance documents which have recently been published on the RDM intranet site: 5 essential steps for your new project and  the end of project checklist. These documents contain advice for researchers at different stages of the research lifecycle.

You may already have received one of these documents as an email – as part of the RDM service we will be sending information to researchers when they are awarded funding, or when their project end date is drawing near.

Just starting out? Check out 5 essential steps for your new project (internal link only).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/takkaria/2520731995

Start Line by Andi Sidwell

As mentioned in a previous blog post, considering research data management from the very beginning of your project will save you time and stress later on. To help you to understand what you need to consider at this stage, this guidance document covers policy, data management planning, the new research data catalogue (more in another blog post, coming soon) and where to get more advice.

Project coming to an end? Try the End of project checklist (internal link only)

At the end of your project you will need to make a number of decisions concerning the
future of your research data – what should you keep and what should you dispose of? Will you make your data publicly available? How will you assure the long-term preservation of your data? This document provides links to information which will help you to make all these decisions and more.

If you are unable to access the intranet site but would like a copy of either of these documents, please email rdm-project@open.ac.uk

 

Well begun is half done : 3 good reasons to write a DMP

Please note: many of the links in this post are internal only.

In recent years, an increasing number of funders have mandated the submission of a Data Management Plan (DMP) either during the bid stage or at the beginning of a project. Most recently, the European Commission has implemented a research data pilot through the funding stream Horizon 2020 which requires projects in a number of research areas to produce a DMP. For more information on funders’ requirements for DMP, see the OU intranet pages on Data Management Plans.

While funder mandates are clearly a very good reason to write a DMP, in this post I’d like to highlight some other benefits of planning for data management for you and your team. It turns out Mary Poppins was right  – beginning your project with a DMP will save you time, energy and stress – so well begun really is half done.

1. More share-able data

The expectations of researchers to publicly share their data are growing, and sharing your
data can have significant benefits for you as a researcher. However making your data understandable and usable for a third party user can be time-consuming work. You will need to organise your data in a logical way, with meaningful file names and structures and plenty of good quality documentation. The good news is that by planning ahead and understanding how to organise and describe your data in a way that enables re-use, you will be able to integrate these processes into your day-to-day research practice, thereby saving a lot of time and stress at the end of your project when you want to share.

2. Smoother collaborative working

One of the key elements of a good DMP is detailed description of roles and responsibilities. Designating roles and responsibilities for RDM across the research team at the beginning of the project will help make your research data more consistent, efficient and accurate. You might want to assign the following tasks:

  • Designing data collection sheets
  • Checking field data recordings
  • Designing spreadsheets and databases
  • Data entry
  • Ensuring data quality
  • Assigning metadata
A "unique filing system"

A “unique filing system”

In addition to roles and responsibilities, deciding on consistent procedures at the beginning of your project which everyone is expected to follow for everyday activities such as file naming, versioning, completing data collection sheets and transcription will help maintain consistency and increase efficiency, as less time will be spent looking for files and trying to navigate your colleague’s “unique filing system”!

 

3. Keeping your data safedata handling

Research data is a valuable asset, and should be treated as such. In many cases, research data will be sensitive and should not be accessible to anyone outside of the research team (prior to anonymisation and publication). At the planning stage you should make sure you are aware of the security issues surrounding research data management and create strategies and procedures to ensure that you are taking appropriate security measures for the data which your are creating. Failure to do so could result in a serious security breach which could affect both your reputation and that of the university.

For advice on writing a data management plan, consult your faculty research support team or email rdm-project@open.ac.uk.

Or why not try using DMPOnline?  This fantastic tool created by the Digital Curation Centre has now been customised by the OU.