This document summarizes a presentation on research data management. It discusses definitions of research data and why data should be shared. It provides tips for best practices in file naming, description standards, formats and storage. Tools, resources and services for research data management from Penn State and beyond are presented, including ScholarSphere and DMPTool. The importance of having an online presence and sharing research is discussed.

1. It’s 2015.
Do You Know
Where Your Data
Are?
Professional
Development Seminar
Psychology Department
Penn State University
2 September 2015

2. Patricia Hswe | University Libraries
Co-department Head, Publishing and Curation Services
Digital Content Strategist and Head, ScholarSphere User Services
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/pubcur.html
phswe@psu.edu | 867-3702

4. This is . . .
data?
I’m confused by Brian Moore via Flickr CC BY-SA

5. 1108845-
godzilla_facepalm_godzilla_facepalm_face_palm_epic_fail_demotivational_poster_12453844
35_super by Patty Marvel via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND
Also, don’t try this filename at home.

6. What we’ll talk about
• Data – definitions,
debates / resistances
• Tips, tools, and services
for research data
management (RDM)
• Sharing research:
values and venues
• Discussion: questions,
comments, concerns,?

7. Data – Definitions,
Debates / Resistances
What are research data?
Why should they be shared?
Data Center by Bob Micael via Flickr CC BY-NC
Research data management by janneke staack
via Flickr CC BY-NC
lab notebook by __.
via Flickr CC BY-NC

8. “THE AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH DATA
DECLINES RAPIDLY WITH ARTICLE AGE.”
Title of a 2014 article by Vines et al.

9. “The major cause of the
reduced data availability
for older papers was the
rapid increase in the
proportion of data sets
reported as either lost
or on inaccessible
storage media.”
Forty years of removable storage by
David Smith via Flickr CC BY

10. “The odds that we
were able to find an
apparently working e-
mail address (either in
the paper or by
searching online) for
any of the contacted
authors did decrease
by about 7% per
year.”
e-mail symbol by Micky Aldridge via Flickr CC BY

11. The authors of the article were able to obtain only 19.5%
of the data sets they requested – and only 11% for articles
published before 2000.
“Unfortunately, many of these missing data sets could be
retrieved only with considerable effort by the authors,
and others are completely lost to science.”
Implications?
What can researchers begin doing
differently?

12. TIPS, TOOLS, AND SERVICES FOR
RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT (RDM)
Use them!

13. Quick Tips and Best Practices
• Take a lifecycle mindset to research
and data
• File-naming conventions
• Standards for description
• File formats
• Storage

14. From DataONE Best Practices
https://www.dataone.org/best-practices
Reflect on the “during” & the end
at the beginning

15. File-Naming Conventions
• Consistency
– Patterns
• Descriptiveness
– Keywords
– “Aboutness” / content
• Versions
– Which versions need to
be saved, tracked?
• Major components (will
depend on type of
research)
– Project name
– Content of the file
– Date
– Version number
– Location
– Instrument name /
number

16. 1108845-
godzilla_facepalm_godzilla_facepalm_face_palm_epic_fail_demotivational_poster_12453844
35_super by Patty Marvel . . . NOT A USEFUL FILE NAME!

17. Standards for Description
• What does your discipline use to describe
information?
– Arts uses VRA Core, CDWA (Categories for
Description of Works of Art)
– Biology uses Darwin Core
– Digital collections use Dublin Core
– Ecology has Ecological Metadata Language
– Social sciences has DDI (Data Documentation
Initiative)

18. File Formats
• Open rather than proprietary
– Interoperable, usable across platforms
• What’s commonly used in your community /
discipline?
• Formats for use vs. formats for archiving
– PNG or JPG vs. TIFF
– Word vs. PDF

19. Storage
• Distribution and redundancy
– Keep the same files in more than one place
– Local options: internal (computer, laptop) hard drive;
external hard drive; college/department servers
– Campus enterprise services: Box, Tivoli Storage
Manager, HPC
– Cloud services: Dropbox, Box, Spideroak, Amazon Web
Services
• At least 3 copies
• Have master files from which copies get made

20. Tools / Resources / Services
• Training
– MANTRA: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/
– Penn State’s DMP Tutorial: https://www.e-
education.psu.edu/dmpt/
• Resources
– DMPTool: https://dmp.cdlib.org/
– re3data - data repository index: http://www.re3data.org/
– PSU resources: Penn State boilerplate language andPenn
State DMP local guidance
• Services
– ScholarSphere: https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/
• Sandbox environment: https://scholarsphere-demo.dlt.psu.edu/
– Libraries also consult, teach, review DMPs

21. DEMOS OF
TOOLS/RESOURCES/SERVICES
Penn-State-based

22. WHAT KIND OF PRESENCE DO YOU
HAVE ONLINE?
Sharing research: values and venues

23. Social network in a course by Hans Poldolja via Flickr CC BY
How CONNECTED are you, and in what WAYS? Have you GOOGLED yourself lately?

24. Impact Story: https://impactstory.org/

25. http://patriciahswe.net/

26. DISCUSSION
(NOT THE LAST SLIDE, BY THE WAY)
Questions? Comments? Concerns?

27. Patricia Hswe | phswe@psu.edu
Thank you!
Goodman, Alyssa, Alberto Pepe, Alexander W. Blocker, Christine L. Borgman,
Kyle Cranmer, Merce Crosas, Rosanne Di Stefano, et al. 2014.
“Ten Simple Rules for the Care and Feeding of Scientific Data.”
PLoS Comput Biol 10 (4): e1003542. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003542.