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Research Data Management

Plan & Design

"Make research output data as open as possible, as closed as necessary"- CAUL
(in line with the Australian Government Data Policy Statement)

 

Data Management Plans (DMP)

 

"Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance"

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) defines a Data Management Plan as:

A data management plan (DMP) is a living document for a research project, which outlines data creation, data policies, access and ownership rules, management practices, management facilities and equipment, and who will be responsible for what.

 


Why do I need a DMP?

A DMP will prompt researchers to consider a range of elements in the research project e.g., budgeting, author naming order, will/can/should data be made Open, where will data be stored, and disaster planning for worst case scenarios.

The ARDC’s rationale towards data management planning is:

In the past, data management was typically done at the last minute and using the first method that came to mind — an approach that can be time-consuming and error-prone. Taking time at the start of a research project to put in place robust, easy-to-use data management procedures can pay off in the long run.


Elements of a DMP

Not all DMPs are the same, depending on the DMP template used there may be more questions or less questions, or similar questions but ordered differently. Organisations or funders may have their own DMP template, and in some instances, both the organisation AND the funder will both require their own DMP to be used.

Click on the drop-down to see a list of DMP elements based on the DMPTool’s guidance.

  • Project details
    • Research question including description and keywords, funder & grant information,
  • Administrative data
    • Contact names/addresses/emails
    • Persistent identifiers (PID) such as:
  • Budget
    • Good data management takes time, be sure to budget extra time and resources to adequately manage the research data.
    • If the data is contractually required to be made open, or the project has numerous collaborators and there is not extensive experience with research data management, then it would be worth budgeting for someone with data management expertise such as a Data Steward .
  • Data
    • Type, format and volume of data
    • Data collection standards or methodologies
    • Structure of folders and file naming conventions
    • Data quality assurance processes
    • Data documentation and metadata
  • Ethics
    • Management of ethical issues e.g., consent for data preservation and sharing, protecting participants, handling of sensitive data
    • Intellectual property and Copyright considerations – who owns the data and are there reuse restrictions
  • Storage and backup
    • How much storage is likely to be needed (documents v video files)
    • How and how often will data be backed up and who will be responsible?
    • Access and security management
  • Preserving data
    • What data must be retained/destroyed for contractual or legal purposes?
    • In which repository will the data be archived?
  • Data sharing
    • Will there be conditions or restrictions if the data is shared?
  • Responsibilities
    • Defining roles and responsibilities for updating the DMP, being responsible for data management, archiving and data sharing.
    • If collaborating who will own the data and be responsible for the data.

Policies and procedures

There are different policies of which all researchers need to be aware. Policies from the Federation University, or other institutions if collaborating, funders and journals requiring research data being made available to some degree.

Federation University policies

The ‘Research and Research Training’ section on Policy Central has a full list of Federation University policy and procedures, although not all are necessarily relevant. The drop-down contains a curated list of relevant Federation University policy and procedure, however the full Policy Central site should be used to access the listed policies and procedures, and consulted for new and updated documentation.

  • Research Data Management Procedure
  • Applying for Animal Research Ethics Procedure RS1923
  • Applying for Human Research Ethics Procedure RS1922
  • Disclosing and Exploiting Intellectual Property Procedure
  • Foreign Arrangements Notification Procedure CG2052
  • Foreign Arrangements Notification Procedure CG2052
  • Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Procedure RS2067
  • Institutional Biosafety Procedure RS1927
  • Intellectual Property Procedure RS2026
  • Management of Research Funding Procedure (Post-Award) RS1926
  • Research Ethics and Institutional Biosafety Procedure RS2096
  • Research Export Controls Procedure RS2050
  • Research Integrity and Misconduct Procedure RS1502

 

Funder contracts

Funders such as ARC and NHMRC are now requiring research data to be published where possible within a timeframe.

Read the funder's contract and take note of expectations regards research data management, data management plans and data publishing.

 

Publisher data sharing policies

A growing number of journals require 'data availability statments' prior to publication or data to be made available.

  • This page from MIT library links to some publishers with data sharing policies.
  • Search Sherpa Romeo which is an "online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis".
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