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Research Data Management

This toolkit offers guidance for researchers, librarians, and administrators on managing research data

Research Data Management

  • Federer, L. (2016). The Medical Library Association Guide to Data Management for Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 
    • This collection of essays discusses the theory and foundations of data management, data management across the research data life cycle, and data management in practice. All chapters were written by working librarians drawing on their diverse experience in their libraries. 
  • National Information Standards Organization (NISO) (2015). Research Data Management Primer https://groups.niso.org/higherlogic/ws/public/download/15375/PrimerRDM-2015-0727.pdf
    • This primer covers the basics of research data management and is geared toward researchers who are interested in the core steps of research data management.
  • Johnston, L. (2017). Curating Research Data Volume One: Practical Strategies for Your Digital Repository. Association of College & Research Libraries.   https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/booksanddigitalresources/digital/9780838988596_crd_v1_OA.pdf. 
  • Johnston, L. (2017). Curating Research Data Volume Two: A Handbook of Current Practice. Association of College & Research Libraries. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/185335. 
    • Both parts of this handbook on curating research data provide practical strategies and techniques for curating research data in a digital repository. Case studies are included to provide further real world examples and applications. 
  • Clare, C., Cruz, M. Papadopoulou, E., Savage, J. Teperek, M. & Wang, Y. eds. (2019). Engaging Researchers with Data Management: the Cookbook. Open Reports Series vol 8. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0185
    • This book is a collection of 24 case studies on how institutions have engaged with the research community while designing research data management practices. The Cookbook contains practical advice for working with researchers in your community.

Resources on developing your institutional data strategy:

Resources on conducting a needs assessment for researcher data needs (from University of Minnesota):

  • Hofelich Mohr, Alicia; Bishoff, Josh; Johnston, Lisa R; Braun, Steven; Storino, Christine; Bishoff, Carolyn. (2015). Data Management Needs Assessment - Surveys in CLA, AHC, CSE, and CFANS. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/174051  

Resources to create your own instruction sessions (with attribution): 

The following questions can be used in a reference interview, or for researchers to answer on their own, before creating a Data Management and Sharing Plan. 

  1. Tell me about your project?
  2. Is the project funded? Is this part of a grant application? Is there an existing Data Management Plan? Are you working with other researchers at other institutions?
  3. What types of data or other materials will you create? In what formats? How much data do you expect to produce during the course of the project?
  4. What documentation will be needed for the data to be read and interpreted in the future? How will you create it? Will you utilize metadata standards?
  5. Where will you store the data during the project? After?
  6. How will you organize your data?
  7. What research outputs do you expect with this project? Will outputs include published papers? In which repositories will you share the data?
  8. Who will be responsible for what aspects of the generated data?
  9. Are there any ethical, legal, or intellectual property issues with the data?