Medical Sciences : Research Resources: Managing your research data

What is Research Data Management?

All research projects will generate data in one form or another. Good data management practices will help you organise, store and retrieve data for use during your project and after it is completed.  You can find out more about the principles behind data management on the Research Data Management website - http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/home/introduction-to-rdm/

Working with data

There are a number of practical activities and considerations involved with day-to-day management of research data. You can find out more about the different aspects of working with data using the links below.

• Data management planning
• Ethical issues and data protection
• Backup, storage & security
• Organising your data

Preservation

Storing your data in suitable formats and under suitable conditions helps ensure that it can be viewed and built upon by future generations of researchers. Find out more about preserving your research data here - http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/preserving-your-data/

Sharing data

There are various legal and ethical issues you might need to think about before sharing your research data with others. Also, it's important to get credit for your data by having it cited correctly. You can find out more information about sharing data at the links below.

• To share or not to share?
• Rights and licensing
• How to share
• Citing your data

Tools, services and training

There are a variety of tools and services which can support you with different aspects of managing your research data from developing your data management plan to storing you data in an on-line repository. The University also offers a variety of training to help you manage your data effectively. You can find more information here - http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/home/tools-services-and-training/

As datasets become more widely shared and recognised as an important part of research output, there is more of a need to ensure that data can be reliably cited in publications. This ensures that -

1. Datasets referred to in a publication can be identified easily and unambiguously
2. Creators of data are properly acknowledged and credited for their work

A dataset can be cited in a similar way to how you would cite any other kind of source in a bibliography, although it may need to include extra details such as the version of a dataset you are referring to or what portion of data you are referencing from a larger dataset.

You can find an excellent guide to citing datasets from the Digital Curation Centre here - http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/cite-datasets

Examples of how data management principles have been applied to research projects in the biomedical sciences.

If you have any enquiries about data management at Oxford University, you can use the following address to e-mail the data management team -

researchdata@ox.ac.uk

Alternatively, you can contact your Subject Librarian for assistance.