“Projects” functionality in the data repository

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Loughborough’s data repository has recently been upgraded with additional functionality. You can still deposit data as an individual (please contact rdm@lboro.ac.uk for more information or if you wish to deposit data) but you can now also set up “Projects”.

Currently limited to Loughborough University members, Projects allows you to set up a collaborative space where data can be shared and checked amongst a research group. How Projects is used is up to you and your group.

If you think that this functionality would be useful for your research group or research project please do get in contact. Data associated with Projects can be kept private or published in the same manner as data on your individual accounts.

Each Project will have an initial storage allocation of 10GBs although this could be increased on application to the Research Data Manager on rdm@lboro.ac.uk.

Publisher Policies

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Although it is usually funder policies which are seen to push the research data management (RDM) agenda, a number of publishers also have data policies. Three of these policies are identified below:

PLOS: PLOS state in their policy that “PLOS journals require authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception”. At the point of submission authors must provide a Data Availability Statement. They strongly recommend that the data is deposited in a repository.

Royal Society: The Royal Society Open Data Policy states that “it is a condition of publication that authors make available the data and research materials supporting the results in the article”. Similarly to PLOS, all manuscripts submitted to Royal Society journals should contain a Data Accessibility Statement which states where the supporting data can be accessed.

Nature Group: Nature Group policy states that “authors are required to make materials, data, code, and associated protocols promptly available to readers without undue qualifications“. Supporting data must also be made available to editors and peer-reviewers at the time of submission.

If your data is covered by a commercial agreement or cannot be released under the Data Protection Act then you will not be expected to make that data public. However, as with funder policies you should make efforts to release as much of your data as possible and/or practicable.

If you wish to publish data in Loughborough’s data repository please contact rdm@lboro.ac.uk.

ARMA2015

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Last week we attended the Association of Research Managers and Administrators‘ (ARMA) annual conference in Brighton. We were presenting on our Research Data Repository which was launched at the end of April.

Although our session part of the last panel of the conference it was still well attended with representatives from both universities and funders. As part of our talk we had decided to hold c30-45 minute breakout/discussion sessions. Not only were these sessions an opportunity for attendees to ask us additional questions about our repository but it was also an opportunity for us to discover the lay of the land at other institutions.

As someone with a research background but who has worked in libraries for the past 10 years it was interesting to hear some of the comments from the research managers and administrators. It is a view I have heard before but until the growth of open access and research data management at universities many research office staff were not aware that the ‘Library did research’.

One of the many advantages of the current “open landscape” at universities is that many departments that previously had limited or even no contact with each other (or contact only in very specific areas) e.g. Research Office, IT, Library, now have regular and meaningful contact across a number of areas. (For example, within a week of starting at Loughborough I had met colleagues from IT and the Research Office as part of my induction and work with them on a weekly (if not daily) basis.) Not only does this regular contact help to reduce any duplication of effort but it also means that staff working in those departments now have the opportunity to have a more holistic view of how research is conducted and supported at their organisation. As such, they are able to do their jobs with an understanding of how their decisions and work may affect others at the institution. Most importantly, it means that we are better placed to provide the support that researchers and academics may require.

This holistic view is particularly important at the moment when one considers the demands on academic staff in both research and teaching.

EPSRC Data Expectations

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Today (1st May 2015) is the day when Universities have to be compliant with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) data expectations. At Loughborough we have been working towards being compliant for the past 18 months or so.

These expectations require Loughborough to securely preserve data created by EPSRC funded researchers for at least 10 years. Metadata about any data created should also be public within 12 months of the data being generated. In addition, any article based on RCUK (including EPSRC) funded research should include a statement saying where the supporting data can be accessed.

Earlier this week our repository for archiving research data was launched. It can be found here: https://lboro.figshare.com/. As can be seen, the repository is based on figshare’s figshare for institutions offering and we have been working very closely with them to create a Loughborough instance to both preserve and highlight the research data created by Loughborough’s researchers. The back end archival storage is provided by Arkivum.

The repository has already been populated with the data from PLoS articles written by Loughborough researchers.

We have held a couple of workshops already and over the next few weeks and months we will be holding sessions where researchers and other interested parties (Librarians, Research Office staff etc.) can come and find out more about the repository and research data management (RDM) in more detail. The next two are currently planned for 13th May and 26th June. If you wish to attend you can contact me for more information.

The repository is only one part of our offering. I was recently appointed (March 2015) as Research Data Manager to help support Loughborough’s RDM offerings and we will soon be updating and expanding our webpages with more information and advice on RDM matters.

In the meantime, if you wish to find out more, or wish to deposit data in the repository, please do contact me (Gareth Cole) on g.j.cole@lboro.ac.uk. We have also set up a general email address in case I am out of the office. This address is rdm@lboro.ac.uk.

Updated ESRC policy on Research Data

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The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has recently released an updated version of its research data policy. This can be found at: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/data-policy.aspx (link to the PDF of the policy at the bottom of the page).

The ESRC policy now maps more clearly to the RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy. In addition, the updated ESRC policy explains in far greater detail than before the responsibilities of: ESRC grant applicants, ESRC grant holders, grant holders’ institutions, the ESRC itself, and ESRC data service providers.

If you are ESRC funded, based at Loughborough University, and wondering how this policy may affect you please do contact me (Gareth Cole – Research Data Manager) on g.j.cole(at)lboro.ac.uk.

 

Over 1,000 research data repositories available in re3data.org

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In August 2012 re3data.org – the Registry of Research Data Repositories went online with 23 entries. Two years later the registry provides researchers, funding organisations, libraries and publishers with over 1,000 listed research data repositories from all over the world making it the largest and most comprehensive online catalog of research data repositories on the web. re3data.org provides detailed information about the research data repositories, and its distinctive icons help researchers easily identify relevant repositories for accessing and depositing data sets.

To more than 5,000 unique visitors per month re3data.org offers reliable orientation in the heterogeneous landscape of research data repositories. An average of 10 repositories are added to the registry every week. The latest indexed data infrastructure is the new CERN Open Data Portal: http://service.re3data.org/repository/r3d100011381

[Taken from a Re3data update in November 2014]

Guide to Publishing and Sharing Sensitive Data

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The Australian National Data Service (ANDS) has just released a Guide to Publishing and Sharing Sensitive Data which includes a decision tree to help researchers decide whether they can publish such data. The guide is written for the Australian context; however it provides generic information on the issues associated with handling sensitive data.

PGR workshops – Research Data Management

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Date Information

Date Time
Wed, 19th November 2014 9:30am – 12:30pm

Who Should Attend?

This session is aimed at early career researchers, although mid-career researchers would also benefit from the principles discussed.

Course Overview

Whilst the management of research data has always been important to the individual researcher, effective research data management is increasingly important within the whole research lifecycle for all disciplines. This session based around the structure of a data management plan, explores what research data management is, why it is important and introduces participants to the key concepts involved to enable them to incorporate best practice within their projects.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Participants will have the opportunity to:

  1. Explore research data management (RDM) within the research lifecycle
  2. Recognise the key terms and concepts involved in RDM
  3. Identify the benefits and drivers for good data management
  4. Reflect on best practice for managing digital data effectively
  5. Discuss common elements of an effective data management plan
  6. Identify the support offered by IT Services and other Professional Services within the University
  7. Discuss the benefits and challenges of sharing data
  8. Meet and network with PGRs from across campus

This session maps to Research Development Framework – Domain C: Research governance and organisation. Sub-domain 1- Professional conduct; Sub-domain 2 – Research management

Booking

Click here to log into Learn to book on this workshop http://learn.lboro.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=9874

New release of Research Data MANTRA (Management Training) free online course

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The Research Data MANTRA course is an open, online training course that provides instruction in good practice in research data management. There are eight interactive learning units on key topics such as data management planning, organising and formatting data, using shared data and licensing your own data, as well as four data handling tutorials with open datasets for use in R, SPSS, NVivo and ArcGIS.

This fourth release of MANTRA has been revised and systematically updated with new content, videos, reading lists, and interactive quizzes. Three of the data handling tutorials have been rewritten and tested for newer software versions too.

New content in the online learning modules with the September, 2014 release:

  • New video footage from previous interviewees and introducing Richard Rodger, Professor of Economic and Social History and Stephen Lawrie, Professor of Psychiatry & Neuro-Imaging
  • Big Data now in Research Data Explained
  • Data citation and ‘reproducible research’ added to Documentation and Metadata
  • Safe password practice and more on encryption in Storage and Security
  • Refined information about the DPA and IPR in Data Protection, Rights and Access   Linked Open Data and CC 4.0 and CC0 now covered in Sharing, Preservation & Licensing

MANTRA was originally created with funding from Jisc and is maintained by EDINA and Data Library, a division of Information Services, University of Edinburgh. It is an integral part of the University’s Research Data Management Programme and is designed to be modular and self-paced for maximum convenience; it is a non-assessed training course targeted at postgraduate research students and early career researchers. Data management skills enable researchers to better organise, document, store and share data, making research more reproducible and preserving it for future use. Researchers in 144 countries used MANTRA last year, which is available without registration from the website. Postgraduate training organisations in the UK, Canada, and Australia have used the Creative Commons licensed material in the Jorum repository to create their own training.