The scientific process is enhanced
by managing and sharing research
d
ata. Good data management
practice allows reliable verification
of results and permits new and
innovative research built on existing information. This is
important if the full value of public investment in
research is to be realised.
Since the first edition of this excellent guide, these
principles have become even more widely endorsed
a
nd are increasingly supported by the mandates of
research funders who are concerned to see the
greatest possible return on investment both in terms of
the quality of research outputs and the re-use of
research data. In the USA, the National Science
Foundation now requires grant applications to include
a data management plan. In the UK: a joint Research
Councils UK (RCUK) statement on research data is in
preparation; the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) is preparing a policy
framework for management and access to research
data; the Medical Research Council (MRC) is
developing new, more comprehensive, guidelines to
govern management and sharing of research data; and
the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has
revised its longer standing research data policy and
guidelines.
Given this rapidly changing environment, the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC) considers it a
priority to support researchers in responding to these
requirements and to promote good data management
and sharing for the benefit of UK Higher Education and
Research. JISC funds the Digital Curation Centre, which
provides internationally recognised expertise in this
area, as well as support and guidance for UK Higher
Education. Furthermore, through the Managing
Research Data (MRD) programme, launched in October
2009, JISC has helped higher education institutions
plan their data management practice, pilot the
development of essential data management
infrastructure, improve methods for citing data and
linking to publications; and funded projects which are
developing training materials in research data
management for postgraduate students.
The UK Data Archive has been an important and active
partner and stakeholder in these initiatives. Indeed,
many of the revisions and additions that have
occasioned the new edition of this guide were
developed through the UK Data Archive’s work in the
JISC MRD Project ‘Data Management Planning for
ESRC Research Data-Rich Investments’. As a result,
‘Managing and Sharing Data: best practice for
researchers’ has been made even more targeted and
practical. I am convinced that researchers will find it an
invaluable publication.
Simon Hodson, Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC)
Data are the main asset of economic and
social research – the basis for research
and also the ultimate product of
research. As such, the importance of
research data quality and provenance is
p
aramount, particularly when data
sharing and re-use is becoming increasingly important
within and across disciplines. As a leading UK agency in
funding economic and social research, the ESRC has
been strongly promoting the culture of sharing the
results and data of its funded research. ESRC considers
that effective data management is an essential
precondition for generating high quality data, making
them suitable for secondary scientific research. It is
t
herefore expected that research data generated by
ESRC-funded research must be well-managed to enable
data to be exploited to the maximum potential for
further research. This guide can help researchers do so.
Jeremy Neathey, Director of Training and Resources,
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
The Rural Economy and Land Use
(Relu) Programme, which undertakes
interdisciplinary research between
social and natural sciences, has
brought together research
communities with different cultures
and practices of data management and sharing. It has
been at the forefront of cross-disciplinary data
management and sharing by developing a proactive
data management policy and the first cross-council Data
Support Service. It adopted a systematic approach from
the start to data management, drawing on best practice
from its constituent Research Councils. The Data
Support Service helped to inculcate researchers from
across different research communities into good data
management practices and planning and its close
engagement with researchers laid an important basis for
this best practice guide. It also orchestrates the linked
archiving of interdisciplinary datasets across data
archives, accessed through a knowledge portal that for
the first time for the Research Councils brings together
data and other research outputs and publications. Relu
shows that a combination of a programme level strategy,
well-established data sharing infrastructures and active
data support for researchers, result in increased
availability of data to the research community.
Philip Lowe, Director, Rural Economy and Land Use
(Relu) Programme
Also endorsed by:
Archaeology Data Service (ADS)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (BBSRC)
British Library (BL)
Digital Curation Centre (DCC)
History Data Service (HDS)
LSE Research Laboratory (RLAB)
National Environment Research Council (NERC)
Research Information Network (RIN)
University of Essex
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