LibGuides: Data Management: Home

Scholarly Communications Librarian

You can get help for research in several ways.

Contact the Scholarly Communications librarian, Kristin Laughtin-Dunker, at laughtin@chapman.edu or (714) 532-7769

Call the Reference Desk at (714) 532-7714

Chat with us at LibChat during Reference Desk hours

Research data is "the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings." (OMB Circular 110) However, this definition can be expanded beyond the traditional sciences and applied to the humanities and social sciences as well. Research data can encompass many different types of information and be recorded in a variety of formats, both analog and digital.

Data Pub: California Digital Library Conversations About Data This blog from CDL examines all aspects of data: data management, data sharing, data publishing, different types of data from various facilities, and so on.
GRID: Global Research Identifier Database Addresses the problem of messy and inconsistent data on research organizations, ensuring that each entity is included correctly and only once. Contains unique identifiers and geo-location information across 212 countries and creates accessibility by enabling data visualisation of datasets related to research organisations around the world.

Preserving data allows researchers:

To ensure data is available in the long-term.
To prevent loss of data due to malfunction or destruction of personal storage systems, format obsolescence, or other reasons.

Sharing data allows researchers:

To have their data used widely, increasing knowledge production while boosting the researcher’s visibility, prestige, and citations.
To promote new research, allowing others to test new hypotheses, analyze and verify existing findings, and potentially make new discoveries from the data.
To prevent duplication of scientific studies that have already been conducted.
To direct requests for data to a database, rather than having to send files to individual researchers.
To enhance collaboration and community-building within their disciplines.

A data management plan (DMP) is a document that details how research data will be handled during and after a research project. It specifies:

what data will be gathered
how it will be acquired and processed
whether and how research data will be preserved and shared upon the completion of the research.

It will likely also include information about:

formatting
quality control
privacy concerns
accessibility
analysis
metadata generation
intellectual property rights and conditions for use.

A growing number of funders are requiring DMPs as a condition of funding, in an effort to get researchers thinking about how they will manage their data as early in the process as possible and to make the preservation and sharing processes more efficient. Preparing a DMP helps ensure that researchers will format their data correctly and consistently, organize it well, and plan ahead as to where they will archive it for preservation and sharing (if applicable).

Examples of research data include:

Spreadsheets
Text documents
Laboratory or field notebooks
Questionnaire, survey, or test responses
Transcripts
Audio or video files
Image files
Slides, artifacts, specimens, or samples
Models, algorithms, and scripts
Log files or input/output files for analysis or simulation software
Operating procedures, methodologies, and workflows

Research records may also be important to consider when planning how to manage one’s data. These can include:

Correspondence files
Project files
Grant applications
IRB or other ethics applications
Technical and research reports
Master lists
Signed consent forms

Some research data may not be sharable due to ethics and privacy concerns or regulations, but researchers may be called upon to explain how they will manage them. Examples from the OMB include:

Preliminary analyses
Drafts of papers
Plans for future research
Peer reviews
Communications between colleagues

In addition, the following types of data should also not be shared:

Trade secrets, commercial information, materials falling under a confidentiality clause, or other information protected by law.
Personal and medical information that constitute unwarranted invasions of privacy, such as information that would allow a particular participant in a research study to be identified.