Tagged / research data management

Free workshop – Data management basics: Ethical and legal issues in data sharing

Data management is essential to make sure that well-organised, well-documented, high quality and shareable research data can be produced from our research projects.

The free introductory workshops on data management basics are intended for researchers and anyone who wants to learn about research data management.

The first session, scheduled for 4th May 10am – 11.30am: Introduction to data management and sharing, provides an overview of how to manage, document and store research data. This second session focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of data management.

In this free 90-minute online workshop, participants will learn about the relevant legislation, such as data protection legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Participants will also learn about strategies that enable them to share research data. This includes carrying out an assessment of disclosure risk, obtaining informed consent, anonymising data and regulating access to enable data to be shared.

There will be time at the end for questions and discussion.

This event is part of our UK Data Service introductory training series: Spring 2023.

Register for this workshop here.

Research data: new dataset available in BORDaR

Dr Constantina Panourgia (Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology) recently deposited in BORDaR (BU’s research data repository) the research data linked to the paper Self-compassion, coping strategies and gender differences in psychology, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners during COVID-19: Lessons learnt.

The dataset can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.18746/bmth.data.00000247

We asked Dr Panourgia to share a bit about what this study was about, the benefits of making the data open access, and for any advice that can be passed on to help others manage data effectively for deposit in BORDaR. 

 

Q- Tell us about your research – what’s most exciting about it?

A – The current investigation highlighted the vital role of psychology, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners who played and still play an essential part in providing care for people whose mental health has adversely been affected by the pandemic. This study explored self-compassion’s ability to predict approach and avoidance coping in psychology, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners during COVID-19, and whether this differed between genders. The most exciting part of this project is that our findings have practical implications for training, supervision, and clinical practice for practitioners, to ensure they remain competent when faced with extreme stress. This paper is based on the final year project of a former UG Psychology student; working and publishing with one of our students was the most rewarding part of it.

Q – What do you see as being the benefits of making your data available?

A – There are several benefits. Making the data available allows other researchers not only to investigate further research questions but also to check the accuracy of our findings. Furthermore, making data available may lead to potential collaborations.

Q – Do you have any advice you would give other researchers to help them with depositing data?

A – Being organised is the key. When you work on your data, ask yourself “Does my dataset make sense for someone who is not involved in this project?”. Using precise labels for the variables of your dataset, keeping notes about the way that your variables were scored and what these scores mean can be very useful. Also, you need to be prepared to answer any questions about the ethical procedures you followed.

Q – Anything else you want to say about your data or the process?

A – You shouldn’t worry if you haven’t done this before. The process is very straightforward and the BORDaR team is incredibly helpful. When our paper was published and became available on BRIAN, I emailed the BORDaR team who sent me detailed instructions for uploading data to BORDaR. The dataset was processed and published very quickly. The final step of this process includes the generation of a DOI which you can share with the publisher of your paper.

 

What support is available for researchers? 

The library offers guidance and support for data management from bid preparation (Data Management Plans) to deposit in BORDaR. Visit our research data management guide or email us at bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.   

 

Dan Bailyes 

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM)   

Memories of Nursing – dataset available on BORDaR

The transcripts and audio recordings from the Memories of Nursing oral history project have been added to BORDaR (BU’s research data repository), opening up a rich source of material for future research! We asked the research team to share a bit more about the project and the data collected:

What’s most exciting about the research?

As nurses, we have the privilege of engaging with many aspects of life and make connections with people and their families, in a wide variety of contexts. This project draws on the rich narratives of nurses who retired to Dorset from a number of areas around the UK and who practiced throughout the world. Through the interviews, we can share their experiences of change, innovation, heartache and laughter. The interviews with 18 participants offer a window into challenges and practices of the past and therefore offer insights to inform the future of nursing.

What do you see as the benefits of making your data available?

This rich data set comprises interviews undertaken with 18 retired nurses totalling several hours and offers feminist researchers, social historians, oral history researchers and, of course, nurses access to a unique archive collection.

The variety of topics covered can be viewed as a whole or provide insights into specific aspects of nursing practice that can by examined across participants and across time. A number of participants practiced during the second world war and through the inception of the NHS, offering insights into care at a time of crucial change in the UK. These stories offer a unique insight into the life of nurses in the second the part of the twentieth century.

Links

Transcripts and audio recordings on BORDaR: https://doi.org/10.18746/bmth.data.00000184

The Memories of Nursing website: https://memoriesofnursing.uk/

Research data management library guide: https://libguides.bournemouth.ac.uk/research-data-management

 

Research data: new dataset available in BORDaR

Prof. Amanda Korstjens recently published her research data on BORDaR, BU’s research data repository, for her paper: Environmental factors are stronger predictors of primate species’ distributions than basic biological traits.  

Many funders and journals require the data supporting research publications to be deposited for long-term preservation because of its value to future research. Here’s what Prof. Korstjens had to say:   

Q – What’s most exciting about your research?  

A – As environments are changing across the globe, we expect many animals to struggle to survive under the new conditions, but to predict how different species will cope with the new situation, we need to understand which biological traits of that animal explain their association with particular environments. If we understand the relationship between the biological traits needed for coping with particular environments, especially the kind of environments that will become more common in future, then we can develop more effective mitigation strategies to preserve these animals. For example, in theory we would expect a clear relationship between warm dry environments and primates that travel on the ground. This study looks at the environmental variables that influence the distribution of primates across the African continent and investigates for the first time which biological traits of different primate species are associated with which environmental variables.  

Q – What do you see as being the benefits of making your data available? 

A – Most researchers would like to access datasets to use them for future comparative studies and to check for themselves how they agree or disagree with the findings of the study. Providing data open access improves traceability and accountability. Most journals also request open access data publication , where possible. 

Q – Any advice you would give to anyone about managing their data effectively for successful deposit? 

 A – Making sure your data is well organized and referenced. 

Q – Anything else you want to say about your data or the process? 

A – The process was relatively straightforward. You can ask questions about anything you don’t understand or are not sure about because you are safe in the knowledge that the library team will check your entry for you. This also makes it easier to feel confident that you are not releasing data that are sensitive or not allowed to be open access for other reasons. The library team was fantastic in guiding me through the process and checking what I uploaded, even when I was rushed and trying to do things last minute. 

The data can be accessed openly here: https://doi.org/10.18746/bmth.data.00000142 

 What support is available for researchers? 

The library offers guidance and support for data management from bid preparation (Data Management Plans) to deposit in BORDaR, BU’s research data repository. Visit our research data management guide or email us at: bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk

Producing FAIR research data – Reusable

Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable

FAIR guiding principles for data resources (SanguaPundir 2016) CC-BY-SA

FAIR aims to improve the value and impact of research data by ensuring it is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable. All data produced by researchers at BU should be FAIR, and many journals and funders have made it a condition for successful submission or grant applications. Over a series of posts I will look at each one and explain what this means for the data you produce. Click here if you want to read the previous posts on FindabilityAccessibility and Interoperability. 

Reusable

Imagine you have found a promising dataset to use in a study. It is freely available to download, and it is in an open format you can use. However, your heart sinks when the spreadsheet opens only to discover that it makes no sense! The column headings are in code, and the figures in the table are meaningless…  

Most data are only reusable if they come with appropriate labels or documentation. Most repositories require a READ ME file to be deposited along with the data. The question you should ask is:  

If I were to access this dataset as someone with no prior association with the project, what information would I need to make sense of the data and to use it in my own study with confidence”?   

The answer to this question will vary from project to project. Examples include: 

  • Descriptions of the column headings found in spreadsheets. 
  • The coding schema used to analyse interview transcripts. 
  • Descriptions of how data was collected (if more detail is needed for someone to replicate a study). 
  • Details of any changes made to the data. 
  • An annotated bibliography listing and describing any code/algorithms (particularly helpful if a lot of separate files containing code/algorithms were deposited). 

In addition to this sort of contextual information, an appropriate license should be applied to your data when it is deposited. The license will make clear under what conditions the data can be re-used. Creative Commons licenses are the most common. The CC-BY license, for example, will allow re-use for any reason provided the data creator is acknowledged (cited).    

 

For more information visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

 

Dan Bailyes 

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM) 

 

References

SanguaPundir.,  2016. FAIR guiding principles for data resources [image]. Wikimedia Commons. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FAIR_data_principles.jpg [Accessed 08 July 2021].

Producing FAIR research data – Interoperable

Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable

FAIR guiding principles for data resources (SanguaPundir 2016) CC-BY-SA

FAIR aims to improve the value and impact of research data by ensuring it is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable. All data produced by researchers at BU should be FAIR, and many journals and funders have made it a condition for successful submission or grant applications. Over a series of posts I will look at each one and explain what this means for the data you produce. Click here if you want to read the previous posts on Findability and Accessibility. 

Interoperable 

Researchers may well be able to find your data without restrictions (Findable, Accessible), but they may not be able to use your data if it is not available in a useable format. Imagine if valuable data was only available on a floppy disk… Not much use to most of us! 

Data can be opened-up to more people if we make them available in open, interoperable formats. The UK Data Service has a list of recommended formats. Spreadsheets, for example, should be saved as .csv files. This is an open format, so users do not necessarily need a paid for solution like Microsoft Excel to open it.  

 

For more information visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

 

Dan Bailyes 

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM) 

 

References

SanguaPundir.,  2016. FAIR guiding principles for data resources [image]. Wikimedia Commons. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FAIR_data_principles.jpg [Accessed 08 July 2021].

Producing FAIR research data – Accessible

Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable

FAIR guiding principles for data resources (SanguaPundir 2016) CC-BY-SA

FAIR aims to improve the value and impact of research data by ensuring it is Findable, Accessible,Interoperable and Re-useableMany journals and funders have made it a condition for successful submission or grant applications. Over a series of posts I will look at each one and explain what this means for the data you produce. Click here if you want to read the previous poson Findability. 

Accessible 

Research data should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” (Horizon 2020). It should be available freely for others to use and restricted only so far as to meet legal and ethical requirements. A few things should be considered at the planning stage to ensure that your data cannot only be found, but can also be accessed: 

Some repositories allow access to data to be restricted. For example, if it is not possible to anonymise sensitive data. This needs to be stated clearly in your Data Management Plan (DMP) as funders/journals will usually need to review this.   

 

For more information visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

 

Dan Bailyes 

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM) 

 

References

SanguaPundir.,  2016. FAIR guiding principles for data resources [image]. Wikimedia Commons. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FAIR_data_principles.jpg [Accessed 08 July 2021].

Producing FAIR research data – Findable

Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable

FAIR guiding principles for data resources (SanguaPundir 2016) CC-BY-SA

FAIR aims to improve the value and impact of research data by ensuring it is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable. All data produced by researchers at BU should be FAIR, and many journals and funders have made it a condition for successful submission or grant applications. Over a series of posts I will look at each one and explain what this means for the data you produce.

Findable

Data can only be used to validate findings or to make new discoveries if it can be found in the first place. How do you ensure your data is visible?

  1. At the conclusion of your research project, deposit your data in a suitable repository. Preferably this would be in a disciplinary repository recognised by your research community. Some funders and publishers will specify which repository they want. You need to be aware that some repositories charge for their services, so you need to take this into account in the planning stages if bidding for funding. The Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data) is a good place to look.
  2. BU’s own data repository (BORDaR) is an option if no suitable alternative is available. There is no charge, and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) will be generated which you can pass on to publishers to link any outputs to the original data. Even if data is deposited in an external repository, a record is created in BORDaR to link to it. This will make your data visible to anyone browsing/searching for data created by BU researchers. You will need to email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk so we can create the record.
  3. Data in a repository is still effectively hidden if it is not provided with descriptive information (metadata) that can be picked up by search engines or people browsing. For example, consider:
  • Giving your dataset and file names descriptive titles. A title like ‘project data’ is not going to be terribly useful to anyone browsing a list of results.
  • Use controlled vocabularies, where available, to assign keywords to your data.
  • Provide an abstract that explains clearly what the data is and how it was used in your context.

If you were looking for datasets to support a future research project, what sort of information would you need to see to make the task as easy as possible?

For more information visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Dan Bailyes

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM)

 

References

SanguaPundir.,  2016. FAIR guiding principles for data resources [image]. Wikimedia Commons. Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FAIR_data_principles.jpg [Accessed 08 July 2021].

Research data: new dataset available in BORDaR

Dr Liam Wignall (Senior Lecturer in Psychology) recently deposited data collected to research the sexual behaviours, desires and wellbeing of UK young adults during social lockdown due to COVID-19. The anonymised results of the survey, collected between the 14th and 18th May 2020 of 565 young adults, is available via BU’s research data repository, BORDaR.

 

We asked Dr Wignall to share a bit about what this study was about, what he sees as the benefits of making the data open access, and for any advice that can be passed on to help others manage their data effectively for deposit in BORDaR.

 

Q – Can you tell us a bit more about your research?

A – This research provided insight into the impact of social lockdown on different aspects of peoples’ sex lives, such as changes in sexual behaviours and levels of sexual desire, changes in solo-sexual practices, and how technology was used in relation to sex. The research also explored the impact of social lockdown on general health and wellbeing.

 

Q – What do you see as the benefits of making the research data available?

A – Making the data available for others to explore and use could potentially lead to interesting associations being found that the research team were not explicitly looking for. We also believe it’s important to allow other researchers to check the claims we have made in our publications. Finally, if similar studies are conducted in other countries, having the data openly available allows for potential collaborations.

 

Q – Any advice you would give to anyone about managing their data effectively for successful deposit?  

A – Try to keep organised from the beginning, thinking about how best to make the data/questions clearly understandable by others not involved in the project. Use accurate labels for columns in SPSS/Excel and keep track of any acronyms used. Also get in touch with the BORDaR team if you have any questions – they were extremely helpful.

 

What support is available for researchers? 

 

The library offers guidance and support for data management from bid preparation (Data Management Plans) to deposit in BORDaR, BU’s research data repository. Visit our research data management guide or email us at bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.  

 

Dan Bailyes 

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM)

Benefits of depositing your data

Depositing your data is a key activity when a research project is concluded. Key benefits to doing so are:

Long-term preservation

When archiving/ depositing your data, you are taking the first step in maintaining your data for the long-term. Data repositories will store and preserve your research data securely and that means you do not have to think about the prospect of losing your data in the foreseeable future. Repository staff are then responsible for the curation, discoverability, and accessibility of your data.

Get published, get cited

Depositing your data does not replace the process of publishing a research article. It enhances it. In fact, funders increasingly require data publication when they are providing a grant, and journals are aligning themselves with this process by asking the data to be published alongside with your article.

Citations are important to demonstrate impact and depositing your data can have a positive impact to your research profile through citations of your research data when re-used by other researchers. Sharing your data can also lead to further collaborations.

An image that describes 4 benefits of depositing research data. The benefits are, one) Improve your research profile two) better research impact three) tackling the reproduceability crisis and four) Meet funder and journal requirements

Image 1: Benefits of depositing research data

Enable further research

Datasets can complement other research efforts and generate new results when examined in new contexts. Moreover, when depositing your data, you are enabling the research community to benefit from your data, ensuring research efforts of your peers are directed into new areas. Finally, sharing your data transparently contributes to tackling the wider re-produceability crisis, whereby publishing your data you are allowing other researchers to test and verify the validity of your results.

 Where to deposit

Ideally, when your research project has been finalised, you will deposit your data to a repository that is related to your discipline.  You can identify suitable services using the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data). Note that there are charges associated with some repositories.

Alternatively, you can deposit your data with BU’s own data repository (BORDaR). There is no charge, and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) will be generated which you can pass on to publishers to link any outputs to the original data.

It is helpful to consider where to deposit your data at the start of a research project, and to plan for any resources needed to prepare your data for publication. To this end, a Data Management Plan (DMP) should be completed at the start of every research project.

Further guidance can be found in the Library’s Research Data Management guide. If you have any specific questions, you can also email us at: bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Publisher research data requirements

Many journals either encourage or require that the data supporting published outputs be deposited in an open research data repository. If you’re looking at options for publishing your research, here are a few things to consider.

Why should I make my data open access?

Open data aims to increase trust in scholarly works by improving transparency and enabling research findings to be tested and reproduced. It can also lead to new research because the data can be used to inform new studies and prevent wasted effort by reducing duplication. Finally, research data is citable, so you can receive credit for the work put into creating it.

How do I find out what the publisher requires?

You will need to read the author information pages for your chosen journal. Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley have examples of the different data requirements covered by their journals. These range from encouraging data deposits to mandating them as a condition of manuscript submission.

Where should I deposit my data?

You should check to see whether your chosen journal (or funder) specifies a particular repository. Most recommend disciplinary repositories recognised by those academic communities, and where these aren’t available, a generalist repository. You can search for repositories by discipline using the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data). Some repositories charge for data submission, so you’ll need to take this into account if applying for funding.

Can I deposit data in BU’s data repository, BORDaR?

Yes! There isn’t a charge, but you do need to check what the journal requirements are first. Even when data is published in an external repository, it’s required that a record is created in BORDaR linking to the data. That way your data will be visible to anyone browsing the repository. If you’ve had data published in an external repository, please let the library team know via the email below.

Where do I go for help and advice?

Visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 

Dan Bailyes

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM)

Research data: new dataset available

Prof. Mike Silk recently published his research data on ReShare, the UK Data Service’s research data repository, for his ESRC funded project Sex work in the context of sports mega events: Examining the impacts of Rio 2016. 

Many funders and journals require the data supporting research publications to be deposited for long-term preservation because of its value to future research. Here’s what Prof. Silk had to say:  

What’s most exciting/important about your research?  

Probably centring marginalisation / inequality and ensuring visibility / voice for those who are often excluded and/or peripheral to the juggernaut of mega-events (involving as it does securitisation, sterilisation of communities, event-led urban renewal that is often a guise for further marginalisation).  

What do you see as being the benefits of making your data available? 

The data being available means their voices live on past the event itself. Given this particular dataset is the first of its kind, having this data available will hopefully be a useful comparator for those addressing such issues at future events (e.g., Tokyo 2020 / Paris 2024). 

Any advice you would give to anyone about managing their data effectively for successful deposit? 

Most important thing for me was ensuring familiarity with the UK Data Service’s ‘Plan to Share’resource … essential to writing the bid and thereby study design. It meant data could be collected in a particular format that made it easy to deposit, as opposed to having to re-work the data at the conclusion of the project (once funding has run out!) to make it ‘shareable’! Going through this resource in advance of bid submission invariably strengthens the quality of the actual bid.  

The dataset is available on request via this link: 

https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-853702 

What support is available for researchers? 

The library offers guidance and support for data management from bid preparation (Data Management Plans) to deposit in BORDaR, BU’s research data repository. Visit our research data management guide or email us at bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

RKEDF – Clinical Research Documentation and Filing

On Tuesday 5th November, Research Development & Support are running a 2 hour workshop on clinical research documentation and filing.

This workshop is designed to share best practice in ensuring that records are completed, stored and shared appropriately, in accordance with the ‘ALCOAC’ general principle, and Good Clinical Practice standards.

The workshop will cover the ‘essential documents’ to be kept during the research project, as well as what to do once the study has ended. Also covered will be how to ensure compliance when storing data on paper and electronically and requirements for source data.

By the end of this workshop you will have an understanding about:

  • The ‘ALCOAC’ general principle and how it applies to your research
  • What to keep in your study file
  • How to maintain good and compliant research records, throughout the life-cycle of the study
  • Requirements for once the study has ended

If you’re interested in attending then reserve your place via Organisational Development.

Research Data Management Workshop 27th March 2019 2-4pm

With many institutions and funders now requiring researchers to publish and share data generated from research projects, data management is becoming an increasingly important part of the research process. To help colleagues learn more about how to manage and share their research data, Library and Learning Support will be running a workshop on the 27th of March 2-4pm.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

  • The data lifecycle
  • How to create a data management plan
  • How to document and license your data for re-use
  • How to archive and share your data by depositing it in BORDaR

Details about how to book a place on this session can be found here

BORDaR – a new dedicated research data repository.

Thursday 8 February saw the launch of BORDaR (Bournemouth Online Research Data Repository), Bournemouth University’s new research data repository, which provides a secure and open access home for data emanating from BU’s world leading research projects.

Our support for Research Data Management (RDM) begins here and is complemented by a RDM Library Guide which has been developed specifically for BU staff.  Use this guide to help you deposit your data Open Access as mandated by your research funder and to increase your research impact for REF 2021 – you can find guidance on developing a Data Management Plan, managing, documenting, depositing, sharing and securing your data.  You can also email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk with your query.

Back in November a repository naming competition was held and from the Faculty of Science & Technology, Paul Cheetham’s suggestion of BORDaR was chosen as the winner by BU’s RDM Steering Group.  As his prize Paul received a much cherished copy of Armin Schmidt’s Earth resistance for archaeologists, from Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor (Research and Innovation), John Fletcher.

Making the Most of Writing Week: What to do with your Data?

You don’t have to spend Faculty of Health and Social Science Writing Week (3rd to 6th January) working on grant applications. You may already have a dataset and now finally have some time to do something with it. But where to start? It’s often a good idea to go back to your original research questions/aims/objectives… a well thought out research question can help shape your analysis strategy.
Hopefully you will have a record of which variables you were measuring and how data were coded. Were any calculations performed using the raw data to create new variables? How were these done? This is all part of good data management. To find out more visit the information pages created by the Library and Learning Support Team.
Once you are reacquainted with your data, it’s often a good idea (in the case of quantitative data) to start plotting graphs to find out more. Always keep in mind the original aims of the study, it’s easy to wander down a path of distraction. If you are feeling confused by all of this or, have got yourself lost down a data track, the BU Clinical Research Unit team are at hand to help.
Peter Thomas is available on Tuesday and Wednesday while Sharon Docherty is available Thursday and Friday this week. Why not drop us an email or pop by to see us in R505?

Research Data Management and you!

Research Data Management is a hot topic, especially when applying for grants. We all have our own strategies for managing our data as a product of research. Sometimes data management is in the form of a box or filing cabinet in a locked office, an external hard drive, purchased cloud storage or a hard drive. Whilst this approach is comfortable and familiar, it’s unlikely to comply with funder requirements neither currently nor in the future.

The Library has a created a guide that will help with navigating the diverse requirements of grant funding councils, writing data management plans and all its intricacies. The guide, ‘Research Data Management’ is available here .

We welcome your feedback about this resource, please contact rdm@bournemouth.ac.uk.

There is also a very informative youtube video Data Sharing and Management posted by NYU Health Sciences Library.