Preparing Your Research Material for the Future - 2016-11-16 - Humanities Division, University of Oxford

Preparing Your Research
Material for the Future
Slides provided by the Research Support
Team, IT Services, University of Oxford
What You Can Do Now to Avoid
Problems Later

Research data?
What sort of material are we talking about?
“A reinterpretable representation of information in a formalized
manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.”
Digital Curation Centre
Preparing your research
material for the future
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

“A reinterpretable representation of information in a formalized
manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.”
Digital Curation Centre
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Any information you use in your
research
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

What is research data management?
Storage
Organizing
Preservation
Documenting
Sharing
Choosing
technology
Versioning
Structuring
Backing up
Curation
Security

Thinking ahead is vital
 Easy to think of long term data
management as only relevant to the end
of a project
 But many aspects of it
need planning from the
beginning

Carrots and sticks
 Work efficiently and
with minimum hassle
over the lifetime of
the project
 Save time and avoid
problems in the future
 Make it easy to share
your data
 University of Oxford
Policy on the
Management of
Research Data and
Records
 Funding body
requirements

University of Oxford policy
Introduced July 2012

 The full policy can be viewed on the Research
Data Oxford website
 Covers the information needed ‘to support or
validate a research project’s observations,
findings or outputs’
 Research data should be:
 Accurate, complete, identifiable,
retrievable, and securely stored
 Able to be made available to others

 Research data should be retained for ‘as long as they
are of continuing value to the researcher and the wider
research community’ – but a minimum of three years
 Specific requirements from funders take precedence
 Researchers are responsible for:
 Developing and documenting clear data management
procedures
 Planning for the ongoing custodianship of their data
 Ensuring legal, ethical, and funding body requirements
are met

Funders’ requirements
 Funding bodies are taking an increasing
interest in what happens to research data
 You may be required to make your data
publicly available at the end of a project
 Many funders require a data management plan
as part of grant applications
 RDO website provides a
summary of requirements

AHRC requirements
 If digital outputs planned, a Technical Plan
must be submitted with funding application
 Digital outputs must be available via an
‘appropriate repository’ for at least three years
after project

Why share material? Enable reuse
 Reduces duplication of
effort
 Allows public research
funding to be used more
effectively
 Use in contexts not
currently envisaged
 Extend research beyond
your discipline
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Why share material? Boost reputation
 Get credit for high quality
research
 Recognition for contribution
to research community
 Open data leads to increased
citations
 Of the data itself
 Of associated papers
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Why share material? Be a trailblazer!
 A paradigm shift in how research outputs are
viewed is occurring
 Data outputs are of increasing importance –
and are likely to become even more so
 Major journals are increasingly
looking to publish datasets
alongside articles
 Be at the forefront of an
important shift in the
academic world

What to consider sharing
 Newly digitized or transcribed material
 Collected or structured material – e.g.
databases
 Marked up texts or annotated
source materials
 Newly generated material
 Anything else with possible
reuse value
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DOCUMENTATION AND
METADATA

Documentation and metadata
 Documentation is the contextual information required
to make material intelligible and aid interpretation
 A users’ guide to your data
 For a whole collection, or specific aspects of it
 Metadata is similar, but usually more structured
 Conforms to set standards
 Machine readable

Make material understandable
What’s obvious
now might not
be in a few
months, years,
decades…
Adapted from ‘Clay Tablets with Linear B Script’ by Dennis, via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/5692813531/
MAKE SURE
YOU CAN
UNDERSTAND
IT LATER
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Make material verifiable and reusable
• Detailing methods helps
people understand what
you did
• And helps make your
work reproducible
• Provide context to
minimize the risk of
misunderstanding or
misuse
Image by woodleywonderworks, via Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4588700881/
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Exercise
 In small groups, look at the sample data sheet
 Imagine you have just downloaded this dataset from an
archive
 What contextual or explanatory information is missing?
 Anything odd about the data that needs clarifying?
 What additional documentation would
you like to see supplied
 About specific items of information?
 About the whole data collection?

• Who created it, when and why
• Description of the item
• Methodology and methods
• Units of measurement
• Definitions of jargon, acronyms and code
• References to related data
Documentation – what to include
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Also worth thinking about…
 File names and folder structures
 Are these consistent?
 Do they help you and others navigate easily?
 Version information
 Are you recording this?
 Is it clear which is the most
recent version of a file?

Metadata – data about data
 A formal,
structured
description
of a dataset
 Used by
archives
to create
catalogue
records

Missing metadata – or the riddle of the
sixth toe
 This painting shows
Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire as Diana
 … or maybe Cynthia
 She has six toes – but
no one knows why
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgiana_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Devonshire_as_Diana.jpg

For discussion
 What data
management
challenges have you
encountered?
 What strategies have
you personally found
useful?

KEEPING YOUR DATA SAFE

http://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2011/08/01/why-you-need-a-data-management-plan/
You can only
preserve what
you still have…
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project
… and backing
up is easier
than replacing
lost data

Make multiple copies…
…and keep them in different places
Automate the
process if you can
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

IT Services: Data Back-up on the HFS
 HFS is Oxford’s central back-up and archiving
service
 Free of charge to University staff and
postgraduates
 Automated back-ups of machines connected to
University network
 Copies kept in multiple places

Think about your storage media…
… and about file formats
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Data security
 If you’re working with sensitive data, it’s
essential to ensure that every copy kept has
appropriate security
 InfoSec at IT Services can provide advice –
see https://www.infosec.ox.ac.uk/ for more
details

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END
OF THE PROJECT?

Preserving research material
 Copy on personal computer
 Convenient for own use – but no sharing
means no impact
 Personal or project website
 Great – but sustainability
needs some planning
 Deposit with a suitable
archive or repository

Repositories and archives
 A secure long-term home
for reusable material
 Make material citeable
 E.g. via a DOI
 Embargos or other
access restrictions
usually possible

Repositories and archives
 Key humanities repositories include:
 UK Data Archive
 Archaeology Data Service
 Oxford Text Archive
 Re3Data.org offers a
searchable catalogue
of repositories

ORA-Data
 University of Oxford’s institutional data archive
 Currently in pilot phase
 Long term preservation
for Oxford research
datasets without
another natural home

ORA-Data
 Also a catalogue of Oxford-created data
 Researchers depositing elsewhere strongly
encouraged to add a record to ORA-Data
http://ox.libguides.com/
about-ora-data

Figshare – a DIY option
 Free online sharing platform for data and other
research objects
 Shared items allocated a DataCite DOI
 A possible alternative to conventional repositories
 If no suitable
repository is available
 If you need a way of
sharing in a hurry

Data sharing – concerns
 Ethical and legal concerns
 Confidential or sensitive data
 Third party data
 Professional concerns
 Intended publication
 Commercial issues
 Planning with sharing in mind from the
beginning can help alleviate problems

• Redact or embargo if there is good reason
Share – but maybe not everything
Slide adapted from
the PrePARe Project

Video by NYU Health Sciences Libraries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zK3sAtr-4

Data licensing
 A licence clarifies the conditions for accessing
and making use of a dataset
 Lets users know
 What’s allowed without asking further
permission
 How to cite the work
 Specific requests to go beyond the
terms of the licence can still be made

Data licences - examples
 Creative Common licences
 Widely used and recognized
 Six different flavours, plus CC0
public domain dedication
 Open Data Commons
 Specifically designed for datasets
 Recognizes the structure/content
distinction for databases

Data licensing - guidance
 ‘How to License Research Data’
 A guide from the Digital Curation Centre
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data

DATA MANAGEMENT
PLANNING

Data management plans
 Ideally created in the early stages of a project
 While planning, applying for funding, or setting up
 An initial plan may be expanded later
 Details plans and expectations for data
 Nature of data and its creation or
acquisition
 Storage and security
 Preservation and sharing

Exercise
 Have a go at drafting a data management plan
for your own research
 If there are questions you can’t answer at this
stage, make a note of
 What you need to find out
 Decisions you need to make

DMP Online
 Create a data
management plan
using the DMP
Online tool
 Developed by the
DCC – a national
service providing
advice and
resources
https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/

‘In preparing for
battle, I have always
found that plans are
useless but planning
is indispensable.’
Dwight D. Eisenhower

FURTHER INFORMATION AND
RESOURCES

Research Data Oxford website
 Oxford’s central
advisory website
 University policy
is available
 Questions?
Email
researchdata
@ox.ac.uk
http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/

IT Services: Research Support Team
 Can assist with technical aspects of research
projects at all stages of the project lifecycle
 Help with DMPs, selecting software or storage,
building a database, etc.
 Meet with someone for a
research data health check
 For more information, see:
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/

Research Skills Toolkit
 Website and hands-
on workshops
 Find out about:
 Software
 University services
 Tools and
resources for
research http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/

IT Learning Centre
 Over 200 different IT
courses
 Covering software, skills,
and new technologies
 ITLC Portfolio offers
course materials and
other resources
http://portfolio.it.ox.ac.uk/
http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/

Research Data MANTRA
 Free online
interactive
training modules
 Aimed at
postgraduates
and early career
researchers
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/

Any questions?
Ask now, or email us on
researchdata@ox.ac.uk
Slides and handouts available from
http://research.it.ox.ac.uk/rdmcourses

Rights and re-use
 This presentation is part of a series of research data management
training resources prepared by the IT Services Research Support
Team at the University of Oxford
 The slideshow draws on one originally developed during the Oxford-
based DaMaRO Project. Parts of it also draw on teaching materials
produced by the PrePARe Project, DATUM for Health, and DataTrain
Archaeology
 With the exception of clip art used with permission from Microsoft,
commercial logos and trademarks, and images specifically credited
to other sources, the slideshow is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License
 Within the terms of this licence, we actively encourage sharing,
adaptation, and re-use of this material

Preparing Your Research Material for the Future - 2016-11-16 - Humanities Division, University of Oxford

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