Research Data Management in Higher Education

Sarah JonesDigital Curation Centre

sarah.jones@glasgow.ac.ukTwitter: sjDCC

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• Three key initiatives and trends1. Data Management Planning2. Institutional policy and strategy3. Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

What is the DCC?

A JISC-funded centre to support universities with Research Data Management (RDM)

“Helping to build capacity, capability and skills in data management and curation across the UK’s higher education research community.”

- DCC Phase 3 Business Plan

Funded by:

Find us at: www.dcc.ac.uk

What do we do?• Offer guidance – helpdesk, briefing papers, how-to guides

• Run training & events– DC101, roadshow, RDMF, IDCC

• Develop tools – CARDIO, DAF, DRAMBORA, DMP Online

• Support the JISC – esp. via the Managing Research Data programmes

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• Three key initiatives and trends1. Data Management Planning2. Institutional policy and strategy3. Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

Why manage data: requirements

Code of good research conductdata should be preserved and

accessible for 10 years +

Institutional data policieshttp://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-and-legal/institutional-data-policies

declarationdata are a public good and should

be openly available

Common principles on data policywww.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/ DataPolicy.aspx

Increased openness and sharing

Surfing the TsunamiScience, 11 February 2011

“For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open”

Why manage data: rewards

More citations: 69% ↑

(Piwowar, 2007 in PLoS)

Prevent data loss

New research opportunities and

collaborationsEasier to do your research…

Validation of results: ‘data behind the

graph’

Recognition

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• Three key initiatives and trends1. Data Management Planning2. Institutional policy and strategy3. Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

1. Data Management Planning

www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-and-legal/overview-funders-data-policies

Most RCUK and key health funders expect researchers to submit a short (c.2 page) Data Management and Sharing plan in their grant application

Expected coverage of DMPs

Funders typically want a short statement covering:

• What data will be created (format, types, volume)

• Standards and methodologies to be used (incl. metadata)

• How ethics and Intellectual Property will be addressed

• Plans for data sharing and access

• Strategy for long-term preservation

Help from the DCC

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/data-management-plans

How does DMP Online work?Create a plan

based on relevant funder / institutional templates...

...and then answer the questions using the guidance provided

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• Three key initiatives and trends1. Data Management Planning2. Institutional policy and strategy3. Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

2. Institutional policy and strategy

EPSRC expects all those institutions it funds:

• to develop a roadmap that aligns their policies and processes with EPSRC’s expectations by 1st May 2012;

• to be fully compliant with these expectations by 1st May 2015.

• Compliance will be monitored and non-compliance investigated.

• Failure to share data could result in the imposition of sanctions.

www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/Pages/default.aspx

Developing strategies and roadmaps

A series of blog postswww.dcc.ac.uk/news

Links to roadmapshttp://tiny.cc/EPSRCroadmaps

A survey on practice

http://tiny.cc/RoadmapSurvey

Institutional RDM policies

www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/policy-and-legal/institutional-data-policies

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• Three key initiatives and trends1. Data Management Planning2. Institutional policy and strategy3. Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

3. Research data storage and tools

Blue Peta at Bristol1st 5TB free per Data Steward then £400 per TB p.a. for disk storage; tape backup £40 per TB

http://data.bris.ac.uk

• £2m funding to date• Petascale facility – expandable• 3 machine rooms – resilience (tape archive 2012)• Available to all researchers for research data

The academic dropbox

What’s the problem?

Researchers need access to their data wherever they are, but don’t always have a reliable network connection

Many researchers turn to Dropbox as it is easy to use and requires no user interaction beyond the initial setup.

http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/research360/2012/05/mrd-hack-days-file-backup-sync-and-versioning-or-the-academic-dropbox

Solutions being piloted

DataStage is a secure personal 'local' file management environment for use at the research group level

– private, shared and collaborative directories

– web access – automatic backup – and more...

www.dataflow.ox.ac.uk

Being deployed at the University of Lincoln on the Orbital project.

– open source tool– provides same features as

Dropbox and more

https://orbital.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2012/08/06/owncloud-an-academic-dropbox

Bringing it all together into a service

Diagram courtesy of Sally Rumsey, University of Oxford

Outline

• Introduction to the DCC

• Higher Education drivers for RDM

• 3 key initiatives and trends– Data Management Planning– Institutional policies and strategies for RDM– Research data storage and tools

• How is RDM being supported?

JISC MRD programmes• MRD 01: October 2009 – July 2011– £4.3 million investment– www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/mrd.aspx

• MRD 02 – October 2011 – July 2013– £4.6 million investment– www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/di_research

management/managingresearchdata.aspx

Programme Manager: Simon Hodson s.hodson@jisc.ac.uk

Close of programme conference in March 2013

DCC data management roadshowsto allow every institution in the UK to prepare for

effective research data management, and understand more about how the DCC can help

www.dcc.ac.uk/events/data-management-roadshows

“The roadshow as a whole will feed into the implementation plan we

are developing after passing our RDM policy”

“I was looking for a foundation in the issues for a librarian. Spot on!”

DCC Institutional Engagements

With funding from HEFCE we’re:

• Working intensively with 20 HEIs to increase RDM capability– 60 days of effort per HEI drawn from a mix of DCC staff– Deploy DCC & external tools, approaches & best practice

• Support varies based on what each institution wants/needs

• Lessons & examples will be shared with the community

www.dcc.ac.uk/community/institutional-engagements

How to develop RDM services

In development!

Why develop services?

Roles and responsibilities

Process of service development

The components / building blocks• Policy• Data Management

Planning• Storage• Data registry.....

Getting started

Examples and case studies from MRD programme, DCC work & overseas

Mixed model of support in HE

Data Centres

HEIs

National services e.g. DCC,

JANET

www.data-archive.ac.uk

www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data

http://datacite.org/repolist

List of repositories

Thanks - any questions?

For DCC guidance, tools and case studies see:www.dcc.ac.uk/resources

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