Managing research data is basic good practice. It ensures your research data is available to complete the project, reducing risk in the project; and preserves your research for future use after the project is complete, increasing the impact of the project. In addition, good research data management will ensure that: you comply with funder and institutional requirements; and consider the ethical and legal implications related to your research data.
There are many counter-examples showing that poor research data management can result in lost research. Additionally, there are the success stories where good research data management has allowed research to continue after disasters.
We consider three stages of a research project, and the appropriate research data management considerations for each of those stages. The stages are:In addition, we consider the responsibilities of a Principal Investigator regarding data management.
There is also an alternate view of the content based on individual research data management skills and a summary of data management resources available to C4DM researchers.
These online materials are an output of the JISC-funded Sound Data Management Training (SoDaMaT) project.