Recent changes to the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research bring home the importance of Data Management Planning. DMPs have been required by UK research funders for several years now, and the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) has developed a number of resources in response. Notably these include example plans, a DMP Checklist and DMPonline , a web-based tool to help researchers write plans according to requirements from their funder and institution. This half-day workshop showcases the many benefits of data management and sharing plans. We will share resources and lessons from the UK context to assist Australian researchers and universities to address requirements for DMPs. Colleagues from ANDS will speak about the Australian context and the Digital Scholarship team will explain how the University of Melbourne is responding. The DCC will provide an overview of DMPonline and how this can be customised by institutions to add templates and tailored guidance. An exercise will also give an opportunity to write a DMP based on guidance and examples from the UK. The workshop will end with a Q&A session giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions and suggest ideas which may influence future development of the tool. - An understanding of the purpose of data management planning and how the process benefits different stakeholders; - An awareness of DMPonline and how it can be used; - Ideas of how DMPs can be integrated into existing institutional system;

1. Data Management
Planning: the role of
institutions and researchers
Marta Ribeiro
marta.ribeiro@ed.ac.uk

2. Digital Curation Centre
(DCC)
The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is a
world-leading centre of expertise in digital
information curation with a focus on building
capacity, capability and skills for research
data management across the UK's higher
education research community.
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

3. Programme
• The process of developing a data management and sharing plan
• The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and
need for DMPs
• DMPonline features
• Live demo of DMPonline
• University of Melbourne’s perspective on the creation of a DMP
• Summary and roadmap of future developments to DMPonline
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

4. Research Data
Management
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

5. What is research data
management?
Plan
Create
Document
Use
Share
Publish
“the active management
and appraisal of data
over the lifecycle of
scholarly and
scientific interest”
Data management is
part of good research
practice - RCUK
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

6. Why manage research
data?
• To make research easier!
• To stop yourself drowning in irrelevant stuff
• In case you need the data later
• To avoid accusations of fraud or bad science
• To share your data for others to use and learn from
• To get credit for producing it
• Because somebody else said to do so
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

7. Documentation
What would someone unfamiliar with your
data need in order to find, evaluate,
understand, and reuse them?
Consider the differences between someone
inside your research group, someone
outside your group but in your field, and
someone outside your field.
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

8. Documentation and
standards
Metadata: basic info e.g. title, author, dates, access rights...
Documentation: context, workflows, methods, code, data dictionary...
Use standards wherever possible for interoperability
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadata-standards
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

9. Some formats are better for
long-term
It’s preferable to opt for formats that are:
• Uncompressed
• Non-proprietary
• Open, documented
• Standard representation (ASCII, Unicode)
Data centres may have preferred formats for deposit e.g.
Type Recommended Non-preferred
Tabular data CSV, TSV, SPSS portable Excel
Text Plain text, HTML, RTF
PDF/A only if layout matters
Word
Media Container: MP4, Ogg
Codec: Theora, Dirac, FLAC
Quicktime
H264
Images TIFF, JPEG2000, PNG GIF, JPG
Structured data XML, RDF RDBMS
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

10. Where to store data?
• Your own drive (PC, server, flash drive, etc.)
– And if you lose it? Or it breaks?
• Somebody else’s drive
• Departmental drive
• “Cloud” drive
– Do they care as much about your data as you do?
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

11. How to backup?
• 3… 2… 1… backup!
– at least 3 copies of a file
– on at least 2 different media
– with at least 1 offsite
• Use managed services where possible e.g.
University filestores rather than local or external
hard drives
• Ask central or local IT team for advice
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

12. Archiving: data
repositories
http://service.re3data.org/search
http://databib.org
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

13. License data for reuse
Outlines pros and cons of each approach and
gives practical advice on how to implement your
licence
CREATIVE COMMONS LIMITATIONS
NC Non-Commercial
What counts as commercial?
SA Share Alike
Reduces interoperability
ND No Derivatives
Severely restricts use
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

14. Share data
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

15. Why share data?
“Publicly funded research data are a public
good, produced in the public interest, which
should be made openly available with as few
restrictions as possible in a timely and
responsible manner that does not harm
intellectual property.”
(RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy)
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

16. Benefits of data sharing
“It was unbelievable. Its not science
the way most of us have practiced
in our careers. But we all realised
that we would never get
biomarkers unless all of us parked
our egos and intellectual property
noses outside the door and agreed
that all of our data would be public
immediately.”
Dr John Trojanowski, University of
Pennsylvania
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/resear
ch/13alzheimer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 ... scientific breakthroughs
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

17. Benefits of data sharing
(2)
“There is evidence that studies that
make their data available do indeed
receive more citations than similar
studies that do not.”
Piwowar H. and Vision T.J 2013 "Data reuse and the open data
citation advantage“ https://peerj.com/preprints/1.pdf
9% - 30% increase ... more citations
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

18. Drivers of data sharing
• Public expectations
• Government agenda
• RCUK Data Policy
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/datapolicy/
• UKRIO Code of Practice for Research
www.ukrio.org/what-we-do/code-of-practice-for-research/
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

19. Exercise: barriers to data
sharing
• In small groups (5 to 6 people), identify as
many barriers as researchers might feel
restricts their ability to share their data.
• You have 5 minutes
Constraints on data sharing Possible solutions / approaches
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

20. Exercise: barriers to data
sharing (part 2)
• Pick one or two of the reasons not to share data
and try to identify a potential solution to
overcome that barrier
• You have 10 minutes
Constraints on data sharing Possible solutions / approaches
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

21. Putting the pieces together...
...DMPs
Photo by Dread Pirate Jeff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justageek/2851643792

22. What is a data management
plan?
A brief plan written 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.
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

23. Why develop a DMP?
• to help you manage your data
• to provide guidelines for everyone to work to
• to anticipate and avoid problems e.g. data loss
• to avoid duplication, data loss & security
breaches
• to comply with funders requirements...
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

24. Research funders have DMP
requirements
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-and-legal/overview-funders-data-policies
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

25. Example of UK Funders
DMP
Data sharing plan
Covering:
• Dataset
• Standards
• Metadata
• Preservation
• Data sharing
– method
– timescale
– restrictions
– agreements
Data Mgmt Plan
Covering:
• Data
• Data collection
• Management
• Security
• Data sharing
• Responsibilities
• Related policies
• Admin details
Data Mgmt Plan
Covering:
 Data
 Data sharing
 when?
 where?
 how?
 restrictions?
 Preservation
 Resources
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

26. Some funders don’t ask for
a DMP but still have
expectations
www.hta.ac.uk/funding/
troubleshooting/index.html
Researchers applying for an Health
Technology Assessment (HTA)
grant should consider data sharing
in their proposals
Don’t prescribe sharing but expect
researchers to consider and plan
for it as appropriate
Follow Department of Health
Research Governance Framework
and MRC guidelines for Good
Research Practice
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

27. They typically want a short
(c.1-2pp) statement
covering:
• What data will be created (format, types,
volume...)
• Standards and methodologies to be used (incl.
metadata)
• How ethics and Intellectual Property will be
addressed
• Plans for data sharing and access
• Strategy for long-term preservation
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

28. DMPonline features
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

29. Guidance can be set at multiple
levels
Options to have guidance at
organisation and ‘unit’ level
e.g. by discipline, group,
department, institute…
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

30. Guidance in DMPonline
Guidance
for each
question
Specific
guidance for
the question
Themed
guidance by
organisation
Themed
guidance
from other
sources
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

31. Themes
• Existing Data
• Data Description
• Data Format
• Data Type
• Data Volumes
• Data Capture Methods
• Documentation
• Metadata
• Data Quality
• Ethical Issues
• IPR Ownership and Licensing
• Data Security
• Storage and Backup
• Expected Reuse
• Discovery by Users
• Method for Data Sharing
• Timeframe for Data Sharing
• Restrictions on Sharing
• Managed Access Procedures
• Data Selection
• Period of Preservation
• Preservation Plan
• Data Repository
• Responsibilities
• Resourcing
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

32. Dropdown options and
default styles
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

33. Templates can have multiple
phases
Phases
This encourages researchers to actively update the
Data Management Plan throughout the project
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

34. DMPonline Live Demo
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

35. Institutions can add
questions to Funder’s
templates
Things Institutions might want to know that funders
don’t ask e.g.
– What volume of data will be created? Does it exceed X GB?
– Are there any training requirements?
– Would you like help with your DMP & details of support services?
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

36. Provide examples and
suggested answers
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

37. Institutions can add their
own DMP template
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

38. Institutions can have more
than one template
Institutions may want to provide different templates
for different audiences
e.g. PhD students and research staff
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

39. Institutional guidance
Guidance can be added by theme (to apply across the board) or can be
written for specific questions
Themed guidance Specific guidance
Guidance that
pertains to MRC
question 7 only
Guidance that is presented
whenever researchers are
asked about storage and
backup
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

40. Admin interface
Allows Institutions to add their own templates/guidance and
view users
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

41. DMP exercise
• Read through the University of Bath PGR data
management plan template (5 minutes)
• Discuss in your groups what aspects researchers
would be able to completed and identify sections
where University support will be needed to complete
the responses (10 minutes)
• Discuss who might be able to provide this support
within the institutions (10 minutes)
• Feedback (5 minutes)
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

42. Roadmap of future
developments to DMPonline
• API – for plan creation
• Internationalisation of all site text – change language
based on IP, user organisation, or from a dropdown
• Taylor content displayed by IP, or user organisation, or
from a dropdown (e.g. alter list of funders)
• Snapshots of plans phases
• Set a plan status (e.g. ‘Draft’; ‘Ready for submission’;
‘Approved’; ‘Published’)
• More types of permissions when sharing a plan (e.g.
‘Reviewer’ )
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

43. Roadmap of future
developments to DMPonline
(cont.)
• Comment feature for each question
• Answer history
• Build in flags/triggers so institutions can
set alerts based on user’s answer
• Export a plan attached to a submission
email
• Public URL
• SWORD deposit
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

44. Institutional Branding
• High-level organisational summary
– Email address for RDM helpdesk
– Links to guidance webpages
– Details of institutional policy
• Custom URL (e.g. dmponline.ed.ac.uk)
• Stylesheet with the organisation’s colours /
look & feel
• Adding logos
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia

45. Q&A
Image credit: The original SimonB - www.flickr.com/photos/26565770@N02/6394748009

46. More information
Customising
DMPonline
Blog post
www.dcc.ac.uk/news/
customising-dmponline
http://www.screenr.com/PJHN
Get the code, amend it, run a local instance, flag issues, request
features... https://github.com/DigitalCurationCentre/DMPonline_v4
27th October 2014 eResearch Australasia