Project CAIRO - Managing Creative Arts Research Data¶

Online course materials consisting of four units:

• Introduction
• Creating Data
• Managing Data
• Delivering Data

Downloadable from Jorum:

• Narrated slideshow (CC-BY-NC-SA)
• Managing Creative Arts Research Data post graduate module (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Introduction to Research Data Management¶

Examines:

• challenges in evidencing art as research
• identifying users
• identifying threats to data
• benefits of retaining data in a usable form

Presents a workflow for arts data management:
Planning -> Creating -> Shaping -> Long-term management

Planning should be good practice - science is largely about data collection and evaluation. Planning this process is part of experimental design. Can you easily meet more than just immediate data needs and contribute to the community at large ?

• Who's it for ?
• What documentation is required ?
• Are there stipulations on data management (timescales, repositories, publish, sensitivity) ?
• Is assessment required ? How do we enable it ?
• Are there guidelines we should follow (e.g. institutional) ?
• If we will publish data, do repositories have requirements for formats ?

Creating is day-to-day working data management:

• collecting permissions as required
• documenting data
• considering file formats
• backups

Shaping is curation:

• selection of data
• extending metadata
• use of sustainable file formats

Long-term management is after-the-research management of data - NB: the nature of this means that it will involve handing data over to a long-term archive. Occasional activities required (e.g. changing file formats)

AHRC rules are that data needs to be kept for 3 years after a project concludes. (see Research Council Requirements)

Creating Research Data¶

Focuses on actions before data is created:

• Planning
• Funder's expectations
• Copyright (researcher as user of copyright material as opposed to as a producer of it). Includes discussion of fair dealing and notes that This exception does not apply to the copyright in films, sound recordings, broadcasts or typographical arrangements (see also Legislation)
• Permissions e.g. model release
• Data Protection

HE and FE institutions should ensure that [...] employees and students are aware that, while some exemptions are granted for the use of personal data for research purposes, the majority of the Data Protection Principles must still be conformed to — there is no blanket exemption.
(JISC Data Protection Code of Practice for the HE and FE Sectors (2001))

The simplest way to deal with DPA is to remove personal information. Anonymised data doesn't come under the DPA. So consider carefully whether any personal details in data add to its usefulness or could be removed

Managing Research Data¶

• Understand some of the criteria for retaining research data
• Self-archiving research data
• Understanding file formats
• Appreciate the differences between open and proprietary technologies
• Recognise the importance of metadata
• Identify some long-term challenges relating to research data
  • Longevity
  • Integrity
  • Accessibility
• Use of refreshing (same format, new media) and migration (new format) to overcome these.
• Identifying significant properties that should be preserved for the data

Delivering Research Data¶

Identifying issues that come to light after the creation of research data, and overcoming those issues.

• Identify different ways to share research data
• Understand the role of an institutional repository
• Appreciate why some arts researchers use social platforms to deliver work
• Recognise the importance of attribution and copyright permissions