This document discusses research data management and support available from Jisc and the Digital Curation Centre (DCC). It provides background on policy drivers for research data management, outlines support offered by the DCC including capability studies, data management planning tools, and training. It also summarizes results from a 2014 survey of UK higher education institutions which found most progress in policy development and plans, but challenges around staffing, funding, and engagement of researchers. The document concludes with feedback on future priorities such as compelling services, engaging researchers, and shared infrastructure solutions.

1. Martin Hamilton, Martin Donnelly
Implementing Open Access conference, June 2014
Effective Management of your Research Data

2. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Feedback and futures

3. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Feedback and futures

4. Background: About Jisc
» Registered charity championing the
use of digital technologies in research
and education
» Wide range of shared services for UK
Universities and Colleges, e.g.
- JANET, world leading NREN
- Groundbreaking content deals
with publishers
- Cloud brokerage, e.g. Amazon portal
» R&D achievements such as:
- IETF standards track Moonshot project
- Pioneering work in Open Educational
Resources, Open Access and Open Data

5. Background: About the DCC
The (est. 2004) is…
» UK centre of expertise in digital preservation, with a particular
focus on research data management (RDM)
» Based across three sites: Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow
and Bath
» Working with a number of UK universities to identify gaps in
RDM provision and raise capabilities across the sector
» Also involved in a variety of international collaborations

6. Research Data Management (RDM) is:
» An integral part of doing quality research in the 21st century
» Increasingly expected / mandated by funders, publishers and
others
» An opportunity for new discoveries and different approaches to
research
» A safeguard against inappropriate data disclosure
» An activity that requires careful planning and consideration, and –
ideally – coordination and support across many stakeholder types
Background: Why RDM?

7. Background: Policy drivers
» Seven “Common Principles on Data Policy” –
Data as a public good; Preservation;
Discovery; Confidentiality; Right of first use;
Recognition; Public funding for RDM
» Six of the seven RCUK funders require data
management plans, or equivalent, at the
application stage
» The other (EPSRC) requires nothing less
than an institutional data infrastructure (by
May 2015).We expect that DMP will be a key
component in many cases…

8. Background: Horizon 2020
» From 2014, Data Management Plans are required for
‘key areas’ of the Horizon 2020 programme, covered
by the Open Data Pilot.These include several technology-
oriented strands and others addressing ‘societal challenges’
– we are expecting compliance requirements to be further
detailed via specific calls.
» Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in
Horizon 2020 (pp. 8-
11):http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/
oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf
» These guidelines echo the G8 Science Ministers’ statement (2013), which
offered similar good practice principles:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g8-science-ministers-statement

9. Background: Collaborations
» Liaison :UK HEIs and research institutes –
e.g. DBIS, HEFCE, libraries, IT directors,
RCUK , publishers etc
» Research Sector Transparency Board,
RCUK National E-Infrastructure Group &
E-Infrastructure Leadership Council
» Work with international initiatives:
› Research Data Alliance, CODATA,
EuroCRIS, ANDS
› Knowledge Exchange – at the
moment through the KE we are
exploring incentives to sharing &
funding models for research data
infrastructure
» European projects: SIM4RDM & 4Cs
» Jisc CASRAI - UK pilot :development of
related vocabularies and standards, for
example data management plans
vocabularies

10. Data
Clouod
Librarians, research managers & IT
have three interlocking suites of
services, to support researcher
needs and institutional policies
Researchers have a cohesive and
interlocking suite of research data
management, publication and
discovery services
Research Data
Management and
Planning Services
Research Data Storage and Archival Services
Research Data
Discovery Services
UKDA,
BADC
Research Data Management Applications
ICSU /WDSEBI / GenBank
Research Data Management Applications
Journal Policies Registry
Research Data Registry / Cross
Repository Discovery Service
Key
Established service
Project
Other supported
JISC supported
DMPonline
DMP Registry
Research Data Management and Discovery
Services for the Research Data Lifecycle
SWORD +
Disciplinary Data Repositories
(National and International)
Institutional Data CataloguesInstitutional Data Catalogues
Disciplinary Research Data
Discovery Services
Metadata Exchange Between Journals, Archives,
Repositories
Researcher identifiers Organisation identifiers RegistriesData Identifiers
Data Identifiers and
Metadata Schema
Support for Research Data Lifecycle
Cloud/Storage
There is a set of
infrastructure
components that
underpin all three
suites

11. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Community feedback

12. Background: The co-design process

14. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Community feedback

15. Support from DCC: Helping institutions
http://blog.soton.ac.uk/keepi
t/2010/01/28/aida-and-
institutional-wobbliness/
» Three principal areas for HEIs to focus on:
› Developing and integrating their technical
infrastructure (storage space, repositories/ CRIS
systems, data catalogues, etc)
› Developing human infrastructure (creating
policies, assessing current data management
capabilities, identifying areas of good practice, data
management plan templates, tailoring training and
guidance materials…)
› Developing business plans for sustainable services /
roles

16. Support from DCC: Institutional engagement

17. Support from DCC: Prioritising effort
» RDM is a complex and hybrid issue, involving a heterogeneous mix
of stakeholder groups
» It can’t all be tackled at once, but rather should be planned out
carefully and broken down into achievable goals
» Working with universities, we’ve carried out funder analyses, which
in turn inform strategy and policy development
» Capability / maturity studies using CARDIO tool (about which more
in a moment)
» Fact-finding exercises can also help to identify – and subsequently
leverage – existing pockets of good practice and/or enthusiasm

18. Support from DCC: CARDIO
» CARDIO: CollaborativeAssessment of
Research Data Infrastructures and Objectives
› A methodology and tool to assess research
data infrastructure and support
› It uses the concept of maturity, asking
different stakeholders to rate provision on a
1-5 scale
› CARDIO is collaborative – the aim is to get
multiple viewpoints to identify discrepancies
and reach consensus
› http://cardio.dcc.ac.uk/

19. Support from DCC: CARDIO
» RDM maturity
› Assess a ‘data context’ – a place where data is created and
managed (e.g. department, school, project, funding
stream, institution...)
› How well can it/does it manage its data?
› That’s dependent on:
– Finances
– Technology
– Policy and procedures
– Organisational will
– Skills…

20. Support from DCC: Data Mgt Planning
Analysed
requirements
Developed a
Checklist
Provided
tools &
guidance
Analysis of funder
policies (2009)
DMPonline tool (2010) How-To guide
(2011)https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/

21. Support from DCC: DMP Checklist
» Checklist for a Data Management Plan
v4.0 (2013)
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/data-
management-plans
DMP SECTIONS
1. Administrative Data, e.g. project name, description,
PI, funder, etc
2. Data Collection, e.g. description, capture methods,
etc
3. Documentation and Metadata, e.g. what
information is needed for the data to be to be
accessed and understood in the future?
4. Ethics and Legal Compliance, e.g. consent,
sensitivity, copyright/IPR
5. Storage and Backup, e.g. where will data be held
and backed up? Security and access issues
6. Selection and Preservation, e.g. keep it all or just
some? How long should it be kept?
7. Data Sharing, e.g. how will data be found and
accessed, any restrictions?
8. Responsibilities and Resources, e.g. who will do it
and who will pay?

22. Support from DCC: DMPonline
» A free Web-based, Open Source data management planning tool
incorporating templates and guidance: https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/
› v1 (April 2010)
› v2 (March 2011) added scope for multiple versions of plans and
templates
› v3 (May 2012) added functionality for sharing plans
› v4 (November 2013) changed relationship with Checklist, improved
usability
» Technologies involved: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, MySQL database

23. Support from DCC:Training / community dev.
» We’ve run many awareness-raising and advocacy events and workshops for staff
and students
» These can be general, or focused on particular elements of the data
management ecosystem (for example, data management planning)
» We also facilitate internal working groups, which often bring together groups of
colleagues not used to collaborating with each other
» We’ve recently been asked to provide training for EPSRC’s doctoral training
centres – detailsTBC at this stage
» Lastly, we organise community events, such as the biannual Research Data
Management Forum (most recent event was last week, onWorkflows and
Lifecycle Models)

24. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Feedback and futures

25. UK HEI Survey
»2014 Survey of UK Higher Education Institutions
› Driven byT-1 year for EPSRC expectations
› National picture of institutional progress
› Understand barriers, gaps in support needs
› 20 questions – online survey link emailed
› To Pro-VC’s for Research & Service Heads
› Library, IT, Research Support & Commercialisation
› Institutions with at least 10% income from research

26. UK HEI Survey: Who participated?
Respondents
Russell Group (39)
Others 10%+ (35)
Others (13)
From 61 institutions

27. UK HEI Survey: Demographics
31%
38%
14%
17%
Research Support &
Commercialisation
Library or Information
Service
IT/ Research computing
Others

28. UK HEI Survey: Institutional Drivers
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
UK Research Council data policies
Government policy on open data
Governance of research integrity…
Strategy to expand support for…
EU Horizon2020 policy on data…
92
57
54
54
53
% Agreeing

29. UK HEI Survey: Areas with most progress
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Policy development
Data Management & Sharing Plans
RDM skills training & consultancy
% indicating piloting or live

30. UK HEI Survey: Getting there?
32 34 36 38 40 42
Access & storage systems
Data cataloguing & publishing
Managing implementation as…
% indicating piloting or live

31. UK HEI Survey: Areas of least progress
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Business planning &
sustainability
Digital preservation &
continuity planning
Governance of data access &
reuse
% indicating piloting or live

32. UK HEI Survey: Obstacles
Lack of appropriate staff…
Availability of funding
Low priority for researchers
71
64
59
% citing

33. Issues needing External Support?
Defining what to retain and for how long
Specifying tools/ infrastructure
Supporting metadata creation for research data discovery
Identifying which costs may be recovered from grants
Advocacy to senior management
Developing data catalogues and registers

34. Outline
» 1. Background
» 2. Jisc Co-Design challenge:
Research at Risk
» 3. RDM support from the DCC
– Capability studies
– Data management planning
– Training and development
» 4. UK HEI survey
» 5. Feedback and futures

35. Feedback and futures
- Active storage is not compliance, evidence of HEIs repeating the same
patterns & interpreting compliance differently.
- Creating compelling services that will appeal to researchers.
- Getting researchers to engage ; researchers /PI think of it as their data.
- Building trust in across the parts of the HEI that are involved.
- Political issues and disciplinary differences.
- Misconceptions – not all data is open – need
to be clear and ensure this is understood.
- Tools that take you through the whole journey.
- New shared services and brokered agreements, to avoid 150 HEIs coming
up with own solutions!

36. Feedback and futures
- Active storage is not compliance, evidence of HEIs repeating the same
patterns & interpreting compliance differently.
- Creating compelling services that will appeal to researchers.
- Getting researchers to engage ; researchers /PI think of it as their data.
- Building trust in across the parts of the HEI that are involved.
- Political issues and disciplinary differences.
- Misconceptions – not all data is open – need
to be clear and ensure this is understood.
- Tools that take you through the whole journey.
- New shared services and brokered agreements, to avoid 150 HEIs coming
up with own solutions!

37. Feedback and futures

38. m.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk, martin.donnelly@ed.ac.uk (with thanks to DCC colleagues for some slides)
Implementing Open Access conference, June 2014
Effective Management of your Research Data