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Research Data Management

Publishing research data, making it available to view and be reused is strongly encouraged by Federation University where appropriate.

Making research data accessible and discoverable through publishing to a data repository provides the following benefits: 

  • Foundation for future research: If you publish your data, others can review your data, methods, and analysis in detail, possibly giving rise to new lines of inquiry.
  • Enhancing Reproducibility: Publishing research data in parallel to a scholarly article enables other researchers to reproduce and verify the results and conclusions. 
  • Promoting your academic profile: Those who create data have intimate and tacit knowledge that can be used to increase citations and form new collaborations for mutual advantage.

Discoverability 

Make your data reusable by storing it or a record of it publicly in a repository and providing it under an appropriate license. Additionally, consider including guidance on how to cite the data. Data citation enhances research reproducibility and enables tracking of its impact.

Reproducibility

"Achieving reproducibility is a basic foundation of credibility" (Nosek et al., 2022, p.721 ).

Reproducibility refers to the ability to duplicate the results of a study by using the same data and methods that were used in the original study. This concept is closely related to replicability and repeatability, which are major principles underpinning the scientific method.

Reproducibility is important because it shows that the analysis was conducted fairly and correctly. It enhances the reliability of results, allowing researchers to check the quality of their own work or that of others. This in turn increases the chance that the results are valid and not suffering from research bias.

It should be noted that reproducibility differs from replicability which refers to the ability to duplicate the results of a study using the same procedures while using newly collected data.

You may wish to do the following to plan for reproducibility:

  • Complete a Data Management Plan outlining how all data will be collected, verified and published.
  • Track changes using version control
  • Document metadata in a README file, including contextual information required for discovery, access, use and reuse.
  • Share any protocols you may have used
  • Submit your data and/or code to an open data repository for access and discoverability

 

Digital Preservation

Digital preservation refers to ensuring continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary. 

Publishing research data contributes to the digital preservation of data in order to:

  • Provide long-term accessibility
  • Protect data integrity by ensuring all information is safe and contextualised
  • Mitigate against threats to data, including format obsolescence and degradation
  • Manage risks, particularly related to data loss
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