This slideshow was used in a Preparing Your Research Material for the Future course for the Humanities Division, University of Oxford, on 2015-11-16. It provides an overview of some key issues, focusing on the long-term management of data and other research material, including sharing and curation.
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Preparing Your Research Material for the Future - 2015-11-16 - Humanities Division, University of Oxford
1. Preparing Your Research
Material for the Future
Slides provided by the Research Support
Team, IT Services, University of Oxford
What You Can Do Now to Avoid
Problems Later
2. Research data?
What sort of material are we talking about?
Preparing your research
material for the future
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
3. What sort of material are we talking about?
“A reinterpretable representation of information in a formalized
manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.”
Digital Curation Centre
Preparing your research
material for the future
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
4. What sort of material are we talking about?
Any information you use in your
research
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
material for the future
5. What is research data management?
Storage
Organizing
Preservation
Documenting
Sharing
Choosing
technology
Versioning
Structuring
Backing up
Curation
Security
Preparing your research
material for the future
6. Thinking ahead is vital
Easy to think of long term data
management as only relevant to the end
of a project
But many aspects of it
need planning from the
beginning
Preparing your research
material for the future
7. 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
material for the future
8. University of Oxford policy
Introduced July 2012
Preparing your research
material for the future
9. 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
material for the future
10. 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
material for the future
11. Funders’ requirements
Funding bodies are taking an increasing
interest in what happens to research data
You may be required to make your 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
material for the future
12. AHRC requirements
If digital outputs planned, a Technical Plan
must be submitted with funding application
Digital outputs must be available via an
‘appropriate repository’ for at least three years
after project
Preparing your research
material for the future
13. Why share material? Enable 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
material for the future
14. Why share material? Boost 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
material for the future
15. Why share material? 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
Major journals are increasingly
looking to publish datasets
alongside articles
Be at the forefront of an
important shift in the
academic world
Preparing your research
material for the future
16. What to consider sharing
Newly digitized or transcribed material
Collected or structured material – e.g.
databases
Marked up texts or annotated
source materials
Newly generated material
Anything else with possible
reuse value
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Preparing your research
material for the future
18. Documentation and metadata
Documentation is the contextual information required
to make material intelligible and aid interpretation
A users’ guide to your data
May apply to a whole collection, or to specific
aspects
Metadata is similar, but usually more structured
Conforms to set standards
Machine readable
Preparing your research
material for the future
19. 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
material for the future
20. 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
material for the future
21. 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
About specific items of information?
About the whole data collection?
Preparing your research
material for the future
22. • 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
material for the future
23. Metadata – data about data
A formal,
structured
description
of a dataset
Used by
archives
to create
catalogue
records
24. 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
material for the future
25. For discussion
What data
management
challenges have you
encountered?
What strategies have
you personally found
useful?
Preparing your research
material for the future
26. KEEPING YOUR DATA SAFE
Preparing your research
material for the future
28. Make multiple copies…
…and keep them in different places
Automate the
process if you can
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
material for the future
29. 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
Preparing your research
material for the future
30. Think about your storage media…
… and about file formats
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
material for the future
31. 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 –
see http://www.it.ox.ac.uk/infosec/ for more
details
Preparing your research
material for the future
32. WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END
OF THE PROJECT?
Preparing your research
material for the future
33. Preserving research material
Copy on personal computer
Convenient for own use – but no sharing
means no impact
Personal or project website
Great – but sustainability
needs some planning
Deposit with a suitable
archive or repository
Preparing your research
material for the future
34. Repositories and archives
A secure long-term home for reusable material
Key repositories include:
UK Data Archive
Archaeology Data Service
Oxford Text Archive
Re3Data.org offers a
searchable catalogue
of repositories
Preparing your research
material for the future
35. ORA-Data
The University of Oxford’s institutional data archive
Currently in pilot phase
Long term preservation for Oxford research datasets
without another natural home
Datasets assigned DOIs
Datasets can be publicly
available, embargoed for a
fixed period, or hidden
Preparing your research
material for the future
36. ORA-Data
Operates alongside existing ORA publications archive
Also a catalogue of Oxford-created data 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
material for the future
37. Figshare – a DIY option
Free online sharing platform for data and other
research objects
Shared items allocated a DataCite DOI
A possible alternative to conventional repositories
If no suitable
repository is available
If you need a way of
sharing in a hurry
Preparing your research
material for the future
38. Data sharing – concerns
Ethical and legal concerns
Confidential or sensitive data
Third party data
Professional concerns
Intended publication
Commercial issues
Planning with sharing in mind from the
beginning can help alleviate problems
Preparing your research
material for the future
39. • Redact or embargo if there is good reason
Share – but maybe not everything
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
Preparing your research
material for the future
40. Video by NYU Health Sciences Libraries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zK3sAtr-4
Preparing your research
material for the future
41. 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
material for the future
42. 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
material for the future
43. 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
material for the future
45. Data management plans
Ideally created in the early stages of a project
While planning, applying for funding, or setting up
An 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
material for the future
46. 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
material for the future
47. 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
material for the future
48. ‘In preparing for
battle, I have always
found that plans are
useless but planning
is indispensable.’
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preparing your research
material for the future
50. 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
material for the future
51. 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 health check
For more information, see:
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
material for the future
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
Preparing your research
material for the future
http://ords.ox.ac.uk/
53. Research Skills Toolkit
Website and hands-
on workshops
Find out about:
Software
University services
Tools and
resources for
research http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
material for the future
54. IT Learning Programme
Over 200 different IT
courses
Covering software, skills,
and new technologies
ITLP Portfolio offers
course materials and
other resources
http://portfolio.it.ox.ac.uk/
http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/
Preparing your research
material for the future
55. Research Data MANTRA
Free online
interactive
training modules
Aimed at
postgraduates
and early career
researchers
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/
Preparing your research
material for the future
56. Any questions?
Preparing your research
material for the future
Ask now, or email us on
researchdata@ox.ac.uk
Slides and handouts available from
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/rdmcourses
57. 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 draws on one originally 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
material for the future