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Research Data Management

Research Data Management, or RDM as you will often see it referred to, is simply managing and organizing the data that is generated as a result of your research throughout the entire research life cycle. You certainly have some form of RDM already; this g

Writing the Research Data Management Plan

The DMP Assistant is a national, online, bilingual data management planning tool developed by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) in collaboration with host institution University of Alberta to assist researchers in preparing data management plans (DMPs). This tool is freely available to all researchers and develops a DMP through a series of key data management questions, supported by best-practice guidance and examples.

Data Collection
  • What types of data will you collect, create, link to, acquire and/or record?
  • What file formats will your data be collected in? Will these formats allow for data re-use, sharing and long-term access to the data?
  • What conventions and procedures will you use to structure, name and version-control your files to help you and others better understand how your data are organized?

Documentation and Metadata
  • What documentation will be needed for the data to be read and interpreted correctly in the future?
  • How will you make sure that documentation is created or captured consistently throughout your project?
  • If you are using a metadata standard and/or tools to document and describe your data, please list here.

Storage and Backup
  • What are the anticipated storage requirements for your project, in terms of storage space (in megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc.) and the length of time you will be storing it?
  • How and where will your data be stored and backed up during your research project?
  • How will the research team and other collaborators access, modify, and contribute data throughout the project?

Preservation
  • Where will you deposit your data for long-term preservation and access at the end of your research project?
  • Indicate how you will ensure your data is preservation ready. Consider preservation-friendly file formats, ensuring file integrity, anonymization and de-identification, inclusion of supporting documentation.

Sharing and Reuse
  • What data will you be sharing and in what form? (e.g. raw, processed, analyzed, final).
  • Have you considered what type of end-user license to include with your data?
  • What steps will be taken to help the research community know that your data exists?

Responsibilities and Resources
  • Identify who will be responsible for managing this project's data during and after the project and the major data management tasks for which they will be responsible.
  • How will responsibilities for managing data activities be handled if substantive changes happen in the personnel overseeing the project's data, including a change of Principal Investigator?
  • What resources will you require to implement your data management plan? What do you estimate the overall cost for data management to be?

Ethics and Legal Compliance
  • If your research project includes sensitive data, how will you ensure that it is securely managed and accessible only to approved members of the project?
  • If applicable, what strategies will you undertake to address secondary uses of sensitive data?
  • How will you manage legal, ethical, and intellectual property issues? 

RDM: The Basics Workshop

About Research Data Management Plans

At any time, please contact your subject liaison librarian for assistance or advice.