Research Data Management

Research Data Management (RDM) is the organisation, documentation, storage, preservation and sharing of data generated or used during the research process. Good RDM practice encompasses the whole research lifecycle.

The University provides support, guidance and training for researchers to enable effective data management throughout the research lifecycle.

CODATA have put together a useful glossary of terminology for key research data management concepts.

Benefits of RDM

Good data management practice requires an initial investment of time and effort, but it offers lots of benefits to researchers, including:

• Increases research efficiency
• Helps you to meet funder and institutional requirements
• Enhances the visibility and impact of your research
• Improves reproducibility and trust in research
• Reduces the risk of data loss or breaches
• Improves the environmental sustainability of research
• Creates opportunities for new collaborations

Guidance

To help you effectively manage your research data and comply with the University’s Research Data Management Policy, the Open Research team have created this supporting guidance. These pages will also help you to comply with funder requirements and publisher policies.

The guidance has been structured to follow the research data lifecycle as well as the typical sections of a data management plan.

Plan

• Data management plan
• Responsibilities and resources
• Funder requirements

Collect

• Data collection
• Ethics and legal compliance
• Storage and backup
• Documentation and metadata

Preserve

• Selection and retention

Share

• Data sharing
• Data access statements
• Open Research Data Repository (Figshare)
• Research data in USIR

Related policies & documents

• Research Data Management Policy
• Research Publications Policy
• Data Depositor Agreement
• USIR Deposit Agreement
• Takedown Policy
• Data Protection Policy
• Academic Ethics Policy
• Intellectual Property Policy