Workshop given at Oxford Brookes University on Tuesday 21st May 2013. Includes Research Data Managementat Oxford Brookes

1. Research Data
Management
for librarians

2. Introductions
Introduce yourself and
your involvement with research data management at
Oxford Brookes so far

3. Research Data Demystified

4. What are research data?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JBQS0qKOBU
 Video from DCC – first 3.10 minutes

5. Research lifecycle
Create
Document
Use
Store
Share
Preserve

6. Creating data: questions
What formats will you use?
- determined by the instruments / software you have to use
- common, widespread formats to enable reuse
How will you create your data?
- What methodologies and standards will you use?
- How will you address ethical concerns and protect participants?
- Will you control variations to provide quality assurance?
- What external data sets will you use?
(See the BL Social Science Collection guide to Management and Business studies datasets)
Create

7. Different formats are good for different things
- open, lossless formats are more sustainable e.g. rtf, xml, tif, wav
- proprietary and/or compressed formats are less preservable but
are often in widespread use e.g. doc, jpg, mp3
May choose one format for analysis then convert
to a standard format for preservation / sharing
Excellent guidance on creating data & managing ethics in:
www.data-archive.ac.uk/media/2894/managingsharing.pdf
Creating data: advice
Create

8. Documenting data: questions
What information do users need to understand the data?
- descriptions of all variables / fields and their values
- code labels, classification schema, abbreviations list
- information about the project and data creators
- tips on usage e.g. exceptions, quirks, questionable results
How will you capture this?
Are there standards you can use?
DocumentCreate

9. • How will you move data around?
• What about the security of data?
• Is there an appropriate RDM system in place
Using data: questions
UseDocumentCreate

10. • Restrict access to those who need to read/edit data
• Consider the data security implications or where you
store data and from which devices you access files
• Choose appropriate methods to transfer / share data
• filestores & encrypted media rather than email & Dropbox
Using data: advice
UseDocumentCreate

11. Storing data: questions
What is available to you?
What facilities do you need?
- remote access
- file sharing with colleagues
- high-levels of security
How will the data be backed up?
StoreUseDocumentCreate

12. Storing data: advice
Remember that all storage is fallible – need to back-up
- keep 2+ copies on different types of media in different locations
- manage back-ups (migrate media, test integrity)
Choose appropriate methods to transfer / share data
- email, dropbox, ftp, encrypted media, filestore, VREs...
StoreUseDocumentCreate

13. Sharing data: questions
A Panda and Bear story about datasharing –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZbk3GEVSw
Does your funder expect you to share data?
Which data can be shared?
How will you share your data?
What do you get from sharing?
- citations, recognition...
StoreUseDocumentCreate Share

14. Reasons to share data
BENEFITS
 Avoid duplication
 Scientific integrity
 More collaboration
 Better research
 More reuse & value
 Increased citation
9-30% increase depending on e.g.
discipline (Piwowar et al, 2007, 2013)
DRIVERS
 Public expectations
 Government agenda
 Content mining
― http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2
012/03/textmining.aspx
 RCUK Data Policy
― www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/Data
Policy.aspx
 Oxford Brookes Policy

15. Sharing data: advice
Where possible, make your data
available via repositories, data centres
and structured databases
http://datacite.org/repolist http://databib.org/
RADAR: https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/
StoreUseDocumentCreate Share

16. Preserving data: questions
Are you required to preserve (or destroy) your data?
How will you select what to keep?
Is there somewhere you can archive your data?
How can you support the reuse of your data?
StoreUseDocumentCreate Share Preserve

17. Preserving data: advice
How to select and appraise research data:
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/appraise-select-research-data
How to licence research data
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data
How to cite datasets and link to publications
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/cite-datasets
StoreUseDocumentCreate Share Preserve

18. Research Data Management
at Oxford Brookes
Sarah Taylor,
Research Support Manager,
RBDO

19. Where did we start?
 Traditionally have had a very devolved set-up
 Schools (as was) largely responsible for own data storage –
some central provision but no consistency
 Some subjects more experience in this area than others
 Issues around hardcopy data and digital data – and the
move from one to the other
 Have a wide range of data – samples, artefacts, datasets,
models, questionnaires, artworks etc etc

20. Why did we start?
 (failed) JISC bid
 Support from DCC
 Centralisation of IT provision – establishment of OBIS
 New Faculty structure with focus moved to subject
disciplines (lots of Departments)
 Central support functions all in Directorates
 Acknowledgement of weakness in support in this area

21. What did we do?
 Set up Steering Group (chaired by Pro VC, Research and
Knowledge Exchange).
 Agreed Research Data Management Policy in February
2013
 Set up audit process – 2 Faculties already
audited, remaining 2 being completed by May 2013 – which
Rowena is going to talk about
 Trying to work across support areas: RBDO, Learning
Resources, OBIS
 Set up webpages with ‘stuff’ – revising over summer 2013
 Trying to use existing solutions – linking with Oxford JISC
projects (DataStage, DataFlow etc; Neurohub)
 Working with DCC on how to develop, pitfalls to avoid, kick-
off meetings for each of the audit processes

22. The business end.… What now?
 Steering Group still meeting
 Research Data Management Policy supported by an
operational document
 Academic staff taking up instances of Neurohub at
Oxford Brookes
 Working with DCC on DMP Online for Oxford Brookes
– just about to test this with two researchers at
Brookes who have received RCUK funding
 Significant impact in terms of awareness-raising (not
so sure on practice changing – but noises being
made)

23. What about resources?
 So far, no additional resource
 Audits done within existing workloads
 Policy developments, meetings with other
stakeholders done within existing workload
 Real willingness to see how what we already have
can be developed to provide better support
 Bought Converis – our CRIS system. Will use this or
our Repository to flag where completed research
data sits
 Will use our Repository to hold completed data if not
held in national/international repository

24. Future scenario
 Until December 2014, or later, no idea on money
available for central support ie QR
 Need Faculties to flag up needs in Strategic Planning
round, to influence if money can be allocated for
support in Directorates
 Using and developing existing expertise (IT Business
Partners; Subject Librarians; Research Managers;
RBDO)
 Will the technology save us?

25. Data Audit Framework – the story so
far
October 2011 DCC consultancy starts
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences - ran a pilot for Digital Audit
Framework (DAF)
January 2012 - DCC conducted introductory workshop – research
staff, research support staff , librarians, OBIS business partners
March– June 2012 - 30 research active staff interviewed – different
roles, different departments

26. The PILOT Audit - How did we do it?
Team of interviewers – research support staff in faculty, Sarah
Taylor from RBDO, RR, and 1 other.
• Associate Dean RKT gave us names of staff to be interviewed
which were distributed amongst interviewers.
• Pre meeting with interviewers then left to setup meeting with
researcher
• Once fixed a date – send out pre-interview information just to
prepare them for the sort of questions we were going to ask

27. Preparation

28. The Results
• Structured interview – recorded within Google form, Usually
conducted in researcher’s office
The Interview
• Google can be exported to excel
• Aim to genuinely help researchers
What do you see as the top 3 priorities for services that could help
you benefit from more effective data management?
Policy / Guidelines on research data management? 38%
Training? 38%
Storage, backup and access services? 85%
Preservation, archiving and sharing 69%
Other 4%
Note: People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than
100%.

29. Where are we now?
September – December 2012 – Faculty of Technology,
Design and the Environment
Introductory meeting facilitated by DCC for research staff
and support staff. Invited subject librarians to come along
and get involved in interviewing
4 subject librarians became interviewers, 2 OBIS, 2 from
Faculty Research Support, Sarah and myself
28 interviews conducted
January- June 2013 Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Faculty of Business
Introductory meeting facilitated by DCC
7 subject librarians
Thanks to all who have helped with interviews

30. What Next?
Data Audit Framework
Consider output from interviews – July – Help needed
Ongoing involvement
Research Data Management Policy – what does it say?
RADAR – a place to signpost and store and make openly available research
data
Communication – web pages – work with RBDO, DMP online
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/res/support/staff/managing_data/index_html
Collaborating with OBIS – data storage and backup , Oxford University,
DCC, - DMP online
Subject Librarians – a role for you?

32. Data Management Planning

33. Data Management Planning
DMPs are written at the start of a project to define:
 What data will be collected or created?
 How the data will be documented and described?
 Where the data will be stored?
 Who will be responsible for data security and backup?
 Which data will be shared and/or preserved?
 How the data will be shared and with whom?

34. Why develop a DMP?
DMPs are often submitted with grant applications, but
are useful whenever researchers are creating data.
They can help researchers to:
 Make informed decisions to anticipate & avoid problems
 Avoid duplication, data loss and security breaches
 Develop procedures early on for consistency
 Ensure data are accurate, complete, reliable and secure

35. Which funders require a DMP?
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-and-legal/ overview-funders-data-policies

36. What do research funders want?
 A brief plan submitted in grant applications, and in the
case of NERC, a more detailed plan once funded
 1-3 sides of A4 as attachment or a section in Je-S form
 Typically a prose statement covering suggested themes
 Outline data management and sharing plans, justifying
decisions and any limitations

37. Five common themes / questions
 Description of data to be collected / created
(i.e. content, type, format, volume...)
 Standards / methodologies for data collection & management
 Ethics and Intellectual Property
(highlight any restrictions on data sharing e.g. embargoes, confidentiality)
 Plans for data sharing and access
(i.e. how, when, to whom)
 Strategy for long-term preservation

38. A useful framework to get started
Think about why
the questions are
being asked
Look at examples
to get an idea of
what to include
www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/datamanagement/dmp/framework.html

39. Help from the DCC
https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/develop-data-plan

40. How DMPonline works
Create a plan
based on
relevant
funder /
institutional
templates...
...and then
answer the
questions
using the
guidance
provided

41. Demo of DMPonline at OB

42. Exercise: DMP checklist
Imagine that you have been called in by a researcher for a
meeting about writing a DMP.
 Go through DCC’s Data Management Plan checklist
 What are the five things your researcher is going to have
most difficulty with? Explain why you choose each item.

43. Tips to share: writing DMPs
 Keep it simple, short and specific
 Seek advice - consult and collaborate
 Base plans on available skills and support
 Make sure implementation is feasible
 Justify any resources or restrictions needed
Also see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OJtiA53-Fk

44. Supporting researchers with DMPs
Various types of support could be provided by libraries:
 Guidelines and templates on what to include in plans
 Example answers, guidance and links to local support
 A library of successful DMPs to reuse
 Training courses and guidance websites
 Tailored consultancy services
 Online tools (e.g. customised DMPonline)

45. Roles and Activities

46. Possible Library RDM roles
 Leading on local (institutional) data policy
 Bringing data into undergraduate research-based learning
 Teaching data literacy to postgraduate students
 Developing researcher data awareness
 Providing advice, e.g. on writing DMPs or advice on RDM within a project
 Explaining the impact of sharing data, and how to cite data
 Signposting who in the University to consult in relation to a particular question
 Auditing to identify data sets for archiving or RDM needs
 Developing and managing access to data collections
 Documenting what datasets an institution has
 Developing local data curation capacity
 Promoting data reuse by making known what is available
RDMRose Lite

47. Activity 1.3.1 Potential RDM roles for
LIS professionals
 What could you do tomorrow?
 Which roles fit best with how you work now /
existing professional practices?
 Which roles might the library wish to avoid taking
on?
Sep-2012
Learning material
produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac
.uk/is/research/project
s/rdmrose

48. Why should libraries support RDM?
RDM requires the input of all support services, but
libraries are taking the lead in the UK – why?
― existing data and open access leadership roles
― often run publication repositories
― have good relationships with researchers
― proven liaison and negotiation skills
― knowledge of information management, metadata etc
― highly relevant skill set

49. How are libraries engaging in RDM?
Library
IT
Research
Office
The library is leading on most DCC institutional engagements.
They are involved in:
 defining the institutional strategy
 developing RDM policy
 delivering training courses
 helping researchers to write DMPs
 advising on data sharing and citation
 setting up data repositories
 ...
www.dcc.ac.uk/community/institutional-engagements

50. An exciting opportunity
 Leadership
 Providing tools and support
 Advocacy and training
 Developing data informatics capacity & capability
“Researchers need help to manage
their data. This is a really exciting
opportunity for libraries….”
Liz Lyon, VALA 2012

51. Exercise: skills to support RDM
 Based on the activities we discussed earlier, consider who
may have relevant skills or expertise to share.
 You have 15 minutes
Activity Library IT Services
(OBIS)
Research Support Other
Copyright
Data citation
Information
literacy
Data storage
Digital
preservation
Metadata

52. Summary

53. Feedback
 Has the event met your expectations?
― If not, what would you have liked to see more / less of?
 Was the content useful?
 Did you like the mix of exercises?

54. Acknowledgement
Ideas and content have been taken from various courses:
― Skills matrix, ADMIRe project, University of Nottingham
http://admire.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2012/09/18/rdmnottingham-training-event
― DIY Training Kit for Librarians, University of Edinburgh
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/libtraining.html
― Managing your research data, Research360, University of Bath
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/32296
― RDMRose Lite, University of Sheffield
http://rdmrose.group.shef.ac.uk/?page_id=364
― RoaDMaP training materials, University of Leeds
http://library.leeds.ac.uk/roadmap-project-outputs
― SupportDM modules, University of East London
http://www.uel.ac.uk/trad/outputs/resources