scholarly journals Data management plans: time wasting or time saving?

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-39
Author(s):  
Alison Nightingale

As a Research Data Librarian, one of my responsibilities is to raise awareness about the requirements for academic researchers to write data management plans for their projects. These awareness activities, often in the form of a presentation at staff meetings or departmental seminars, are frequently followed by a sceptical response from the academic staff along the lines that “This is just something else for us to try to fit into our already over-busy lives”. My answer is usually: “Yes, but it might prevent data management problems slowing up your project”. So, what are data management plans and how can they be of value to your project?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Szuflita-Żurawska ◽  
Anna Wałek

Open Science Competence Center at the Gdańsk University of Technology Library was established upon the Bridge of Data project at the end of 2018. Our main goals include providing support for the academic community for broad issues associated with Open Science, especially with Open Research Data. Our team of professionals help researchers in many topics such as: "what kinds of data you need to share", "how to make your data openly available to others", or "how to create a Data Management Plan" – that recently has been the most popular and demanding service.  One of the main challenges to support academic staff with Data Management Plans is dealing with the legal impediments to provide open access and reusing of research data for publicly funded scientific projects. The lack of understanding the legal issues in opening research is a significant barrier to facilitate Open Science. Much public-funded research requires to prepare a Data Management Plan that, among other items, provides information about ownership and user rights. One of the most common activity for scholars is choosing which license (if any) they are supposed to use in terms of the dissemination the scientific output. However, in many cases, resolving the right license for research data is not enough. Academic staff faces many tensions with a lack of clarity around legal requirements and obstacles. The increasing researchers' need for understanding and describing conflicting issues (e.g. patenting) results in looking for professional and knowledgeable support at the university. We examine the most frequent legal issues arising among DMPs from the three scientific disciplines: chemistry (e.g. ethical papers), economics (e.g. data value cycle), and civil engineering (e.g. complexity of construction data). In our presentation, we would like to introduce the main identified problems and show how mapping and benchmarking occurring problems among those disciplines help us to establish more efficient legal support for researchers. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-568
Author(s):  
Chris Graf ◽  
Dave Flanagan ◽  
Lisa Wylie ◽  
Deirdre Silver

Data availability statements can provide useful information about how researchers actually share research data. We used unsupervised machine learning to analyze 124,000 data availability statements submitted by research authors to 176 Wiley journals between 2013 and 2019. We categorized the data availability statements, and looked at trends over time. We found expected increases in the number of data availability statements submitted over time, and marked increases that correlate with policy changes made by journals. Our open data challenge becomes to use what we have learned to present researchers with relevant and easy options that help them to share and make an impact with new research data.


Author(s):  
Susanne Blumesberger ◽  
Nikos Gänsdorfer ◽  
Raman Ganguly ◽  
Eva Gergely ◽  
Alexander Gruber ◽  
...  

This article gives an overview of the FAIR Data Austria project objectives and current results. In collaboration with our project partners, we work on the development and establishment of tools for managing the lifecycle of research data, including machine-actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs), repositories for long-term archiving of research results, RDM training and support services, models, and profiles for Data Stewards and FAIR Office Austria.


2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Barbrow ◽  
Denise Brush ◽  
Julie Goldman

Research in many academic fields today generates large amounts of data. These data not only must be processed and analyzed by the researchers, but also managed throughout the data life cycle. Recently, some academic libraries have begun to offer research data management (RDM) services to their communities. Often, this service starts with helping faculty write data management plans, now required by many federal granting agencies. Libraries with more developed services may work with researchers as they decide how to archive and share data once the grant work is complete.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Rice ◽  
Jeff Haywood

During the last decade, national and international attention has been increasingly focused on issues of research data management and access to publicly funded research data. The pressure brought to bear on researchers to improve their data management and data sharing practice has come from research funders seeking to add value to expensive research and solve cross-disciplinary grand challenges; publishers seeking to be responsive to calls for transparency and reproducibility of the scientific record; and the public seeking to gain and re-use knowledge for their own purposes using new online tools. Meanwhile higher education institutions have been rather reluctant to assert their role in either incentivising or supporting their academic staff in meeting these more demanding requirements for research practice, partly due to lack of knowledge as to how to provide suitable assistance or facilities for data storage and curation/preservation. This paper discusses the activities and drivers behind one institution’s recent attempts to address this gap, with reflection on lessons learned and future direction.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Smale ◽  
Kathryn Unsworth ◽  
Gareth Denyer ◽  
Daniel Barr

AbstractData management plans (DMPs) have increasingly been encouraged as a key component of institutional and funding body policy. Although DMPs necessarily place administrative burden on researchers, proponents claim that DMPs have myriad benefits, including enhanced research data quality, increased rates of data sharing, and institutional planning and compliance benefits.In this manuscript, we explore the international history of DMPs and describe institutional and funding body DMP policy. We find that economic and societal benefits from presumed increased rates of data sharing was the original driver of mandating DMPs by funding bodies. Today, 86% of UK Research Councils and 63% of US funding bodies require submission of a DMP with funding applications. Given that no major Australian funding bodies require DMP submission, it is of note that 37% of Australian universities have taken the initiative to internally mandate DMPs.Institutions both within Australia and internationally frequently promote the professional benefits of DMP use, and endorse DMPs as ‘best practice’. We analyse one such typical DMP implementation at a major Australian institution, finding that DMPs have low levels of apparent translational value. Indeed, an extensive literature review suggests there is very limited published systematic evidence that DMP use has any tangible benefit for researchers, institutions or funding bodies.We are therefore led to question why DMPs have become the go-to tool for research data professionals and advocates of good data practice. By delineating multiple use-cases and highlighting the need for DMPs to be fit for intended purpose, we question the view that a good DMP is necessarily that which encompasses the entire data lifecycle of a project. Finally, we summarise recent developments in the DMP landscape, and note a positive shift towards evidence-based research management through more researcher-centric, educative, and integrated DMP services.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Santos de Oliveira Veiga ◽  
Patricia Henning ◽  
Simone Dib ◽  
Erick Penedo ◽  
Jefferson Da Costa Lima ◽  
...  

RESUMO Este artigo trás para discussão o papel dos planos de gestão de dados como instrumento facilitador da gestão dos dados durante todo o ciclo de vida da pesquisa. A abertura de dados de pesquisa é pauta prioritária nas agendas científicas, por ampliar tanto a visibilidade e transparência das investigações, como a capacidade de reprodutibilidade e reuso dos dados em novas pesquisas. Nesse contexto, os princípios FAIR, um acrônimo para ‘Findable’, ‘Accessible’, ‘Interoperable’ e ‘Reusable’ é fundamental por estabelecerem orientações basilares e norteadoras na gestão, curadoria e preservação dos dados de pesquisa direcionados para o compartilhamento e o reuso. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar uma proposta de template de Plano de Gestão de Dados, alinhado aos princípios FAIR, para a Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. A metodologia utilizada é de natureza bibliográfica e de análise documental de diversos planos de gestão de dados europeus. Concluímos que a adoção de um plano de gestão nas práticas cientificas de universidades e instituições de pesquisa é fundamental. No entanto, para tirar maior proveito dessa atividade é necessário contar com a participação de todos os atores envolvidos no processo, além disso, esse plano de gestão deve ser machine-actionable, ou seja, acionável por máquina.Palavras-chave: Plano de Gestão de Dados; Dado de Pesquisa; Princípios FAIR; PGD Acionável por Máquina; Ciência Aberta.ABSTRACT This article proposes to discuss the role of data management plans as a tool to facilitate data management during researches life cycle. Today, research data opening is a primary agenda at scientific agencies as it may boost investigations’ visibility and transparency as well as the ability to reproduce and reuse its data on new researches. Within this context, FAIR principles, an acronym for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable, is paramount, as it establishes basic and guiding orientations for research data management, curatorship and preservation with an intent on its sharing and reuse. The current work intends to present to the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz a new Data Management Plan template proposal, aligned with FAIR principles. The methodology used is bibliographical research and documental analysis of several European data management plans. We conclude that the adoption of a management plan on universities and research institutions scientific activities is paramount. However, to be fully benefited from this activity, all actors involved in the process must participate, and, on top of that, this plan must be machine-actionable.Keywords: Data Management Plan; Research Data; FAIR Principles; DMP Machine-Actionable; Open Science.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Blackwood

Universities within the California State University System are given the mandate to teach the students of the state, as is the case with many regional, public universities. This mandate places teaching first; however, research and scholarship are still required activities for reaching retention, tenure, and promotion, as well as important skills for students to practice. Data management instruction for both faculty and undergraduates is often omitted at these institutions, which fall outside of the R1 designation. This happens for a variety of reasons, including personnel and resource limitations. Such limitations disproportionately burden students from underrepresented populations, who are more heavily represented at these institutions. These students have pathways to graduate school and the digital economy, like their counterparts at R1s; thus, they are also in need of research data management skills. This paper describes and provides a scalable, low-resource model for data management instruction from the university library and integrated into a department’s capstone or final project curriculum. In the case study, students and their instructors participated in workshops and submitted data management plans as a requirement of their final project. The analysis will analyze the results of the project and focus on the broader implications of integrating research data management into undergraduate curriculum at public, regional universities. By working with faculty to integrate data management practices into their curricula, librarians reach both students and faculty members with best practices for research data management. This work also contributes to a more equitable and sustainable research landscape.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trond Kvamme ◽  
Philipp Conzett

Norway has been selected as a new national node in RDA (Research Data Alliance). Until the end of the project in May 2020, the node will be engaging with research communities, supporting national agendas, and contributing to the EU Open Science Strategy to ensure capillary uptake of RDA principles and outputs. Moreover, they will be working to increase the participation in RDA nationally. The Norwegian RDA node (NO-RDA) will be run by a consortium of seven partners, each of them with specific roles in the activities around the node, and led by NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data. NO-RDA will focus on supporting the implementation of RDA outputs and recommendations and on areas of strategic importance for the Nordic region, such as Data Management Plans, FAIR Data Stewardship and management of sensitive data in research within the framework of current international and statutory regulations. In addition to NSD the node consists of NTNU, UiB, UiO, UiT, Unit og Uninett/Sigma2. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) was launched as a community-driven initiative in 2013 by the European Commission, the United States Government's National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation with the goal of building the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing and re-use of data. RDA has a grass-roots, inclusive approach covering all data lifecycle stages, engaging data producers, users and stewards, addressing data exchange, processing, and storage. It has succeeded in creating the neutral social platform where international research data experts meet to exchange views and to agree on topics including social hurdles on data sharing, education and training challenges, data management plans and certification of data repositories, disciplinary and interdisciplinary interoperability, as well as technological aspects.


2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Tomasz Miksa ◽  
Simon Oblasser ◽  
Andreas Rauber

Many research funders mandate researchers to create and maintain data management plans (DMPs) for research projects that describe how research data is managed to ensure its reusability. A DMP, being a static textual document, is difficult to act upon and can quickly become obsolete and impractical to maintain. A new generation of machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) was therefore proposed by the Research Data Alliance to enable automated integration of information and updates. maDMPs open up a variety of use cases enabling interoperability of research systems and automation of data management tasks. In this article, we describe a system for machine-actionable data management planning in an institutional context. We identify common use cases within research that can be automated to benefit from machine-actionability of DMPs. We propose a reference architecture of an maDMP support system that can be embedded into an institutional research data management infrastructure. The system semi-automates creation and maintenance of DMPs, and thus eases the burden for the stakeholders responsible for various DMP elements. We evaluate the proposed system in a case study conducted at the largest technical university in Austria and quantify to what extent the DMP templates provided by the European Commission and a national funding body can be pre-filled. The proof-of-concept implementation shows that maDMP workflows can be semi-automated, thus workload on involved parties can be reduced and quality of information increased. The results are especially relevant to decision makers and infrastructure operators who want to design information systems in a systematic way that can utilize the full potential of maDMPs.


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