Louise Corti UK Data Archive University of Essex

1. Data Management Planning: what do researchers really need to know?Scoping digital repository services for research data management20 October, Oxford Louise Corti UK Data Archive University of Essex

2. Sharing research data • data are valuable resources that can be used and re-used for future scientific and educational purposes • sharing data facilitates research often beyond the scope of the original research, encourages scientific inquiry, avoids duplicate data collection and provides resources for education and training • the ability to demonstrate continued usage of data after original research is completed ensures the research community gets the most out of publicly funded research • many research councils are now committed to a long-term strategy for data resource provision and for supporting UK researchers • most research data can be shared with other researchers!

3. Supporting research data sharing • Research Council formalised data policies on the rise • UKDA/ESDS role to support the ESRC Data(sets) Policy since 1995 • Provides advice to data creators and depositors • Monitor policy and end of award outcomes • Evaluation, acquisition, ingest, processing, preservation and dissemination • UKDA has 40+ years of expertise in formulating and guidance in best practices in data management and methods of data sharing

4. Advice • Work with range of social and economic researchers • Liaised with thousands - from large programmes to small grants, and government departments etc. • Advice through bespoke advice, web support, and training days • But, most researcher place data sharing at the bottom of their list • Mostly uninformed about many issues and also disinterested • Challenge in education – sticks and carrots needed

5. Uniformed? • Software, data formats and impact on data shareability • Consent and confidentiality • Rights management • Storage, back up, version control • Security • Data description and documentation

6. Formalising data management even more… • UKDA already worked closely with ESRC, NERC, MRC and BA. Relationships with other funders and survey producers - government departments, NATCEN etc • New joint council research programme, multi million pounds • Data considered important from the start

7. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU) Large-scale unprecedented interdisciplinary collaboration between: • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) • National Environment Research Council (NERC) Budget of £24 million, with additional funding provided by government agencies: • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) • Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department

8. RELU Programme Objectives • rural areas in the UK are experiencing considerable change • to advance understanding of the challenges they face • interdisciplinary research funded 2004-2011 in order to inform future policy and practice with choices on how to manage the countryside and rural economies • enables researchers to work together to investigate the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas • aims to encourage social and economic vitality of rural areas and promote the protection and conservation of the rural environment

9. Interdisciplinarity aims • apply learning from one field to another • combine different methodological approaches and sources of information • cross-fertilise ideas and concepts • understand scientific, technological and environmental problems in their social and economic context

10. Six societal challenges • public trust in food chains • tackling animal and plant disease • sustainable farming in the New Europe • robust rural economics • land management techniques to deal with climate change and invasive species • managing land and water use for sustainable water catchments

11. Data • truly interdisciplinary, hard and soft science meeting • data inputs and outputs considered upfront • programme is both using and creating a variety of data sources • disparate types of data – social, environmental and biological data • estimate some 80 datasets from Call 1 (8 major research projects and smaller scoping studies)

12. RELU data types • Social data – people based • Micro (survey) • Household or individual level attributes, Behaviour, attitudes and options • Business/company • Farm level data • Aggregated • UK Census e.g. small area statistics, Retail statistics, Health indicators • GIS/spatial data geographically referenced environmental databases • Ordnance survey, Road networks, Settlement

13. RELU data types (cont.) • water quality, land fill, air quality, emission levels • soil data, eg mineral composition • ecological data, animal and bird distributions • agricultural census • climate and meteorological data • river flow data • biochemical data relating to foods/habitats

14. RELU Data Management Policy • early on data management formally recognised by funders as critical • builds on existing ESRC and NERC mandatory data policies • offered opportunities to develop new data management policy and procedures from two existing RC policies and practice

15. RELU Data Management Policy principles • publicly funded research data are a valuable, long term resource • to ensure maximum research exploitation data must be managed effectively from day-1 • researchers must collect data in such a way as to ensure longer term sharing • RELU funds will support data management through the life of the project (estimated 5% of programme budget) • data must be made available by researchers for archiving: Research Council supported data centres provide long-term, post-project data management

16. RELU Data Support Service • set up to help oversee and implement the Programme's Data Management Policy and Data Management Plan • provides a support service for RELU researchers and staff to gain information and guidance on issues surrounding longer-term data sharing and preservation • joint support service run by: • UK Data Archive at Essex (UKDA) • The NERC-supported Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) • funded initially for one year supporting one FTE DSS Officer and outreach activities: Jan 05 – March 2011

17. RELU website

18. Outputs • getting wording of DM Plan and guidance right • web site to support completing application • web site to support completing plan once funded • workshops for new Principal Investigators and researchers • site visits • Best Practice Guide on Data Management • third party data information – costs, barriers, licensing • searchable database of all data being created – RELU portal • acquire data, process and disseminate data • Advice, exemplars and training on data integration

19. Data Management Plan • proforma to complete (Section 3 of the ProjectCommunication and Data Management Plan) • highlighting data management and custody issues at an early stage • providing a basis for quality assurance within the Programme • providing a basis from which award holders and the Programme Director can report and monitor project and overall RELU Programme progress

20. Information required from plan • requirements for access to existing datasets • details of new and derived datasets to be produced • quality assurance of data • formats and standards • data description and documentation • ethical, legal issues and IPR resolution • data back-up procedures, security • archiving data (for Research Council data archives) • Named data management representative(s)

21. Guidance on Data Management • Produced glossy brochure, simplified advice • What is Data Management? Data, metadata etc. • Data Management strategies • What is Digital Preservation? • Making Back-ups • Format Translation and Choice of Formats • Security

22. Our experience • UKDA operationalises the ESRC Data Policy but cannot completely police it 100% • this degree of formalisation and accountability is new to social science data planning in the UK • formalised DMP and DM support ensures potential sharing issues to be clarified early on and support mid and end of project • found greater awareness of data, metadata documentation, and data sharing….albeit grudgingly

23. Other disciplines (UK) Policies • Natural Environmental Research Council (6% of each Programme) • Arts and Humanities Research Council ICT review • The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) • Medical Research Council • British Academy • Wellcome Trust • We hope to see DMPs applied to all major investment data-rich ESRC programmes

24. Broader data management and sharing advice and training at UKDA • web guidance • joint council brochure • bespoke advisory service • training workshops • training materials • articles (e.g consent) • Work with NDStrategy, DCC, DP forums, RIN etc.

25. Informing of options for data sharing • Options: • informally, via the data creator, on a peer-to-peer basis • deposit in a specialist data centre, dedicated to archiving, preserving and disseminating digital data • deposit in a self-archiving system • deposit in an institutional repository • Set out pros and cons for complex research data

26. Sharing options Advice on: ARCHIVING DATA AT THE UKDA • formalised archiving and preservation of data in a specialist data archive or centre ensuring longer-term secure safekeeping and sharing of data SELF-ARCHIVING • UKDA established its self-archiving facility, UKDA-store, in 2008, with support from ESRC and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). ‘Quicker and dirtier’ solution

27. UKDA-store

28. Modular advice…bite size • aiming at specific and easy-to-read information • to provide day creators/managers with best practice strategies and methods for creating a shareable dataset. • relevant throughout the life span of a research project • modularised: • How to share data • Consent, confidentiality and ethics • Copyright and other rights • Data description and metadata • Data formats and software • Data storage, back-up and security

29. Data management and sharing advice and training website

30. FAQs • Most problematic areas: • definitions and legal aspects of DP, FOI etc. • gaining consent and consent forms (active liaison with RECs) • disclosure • data sharing and confidentiality • FAQ on ethics, consent, confidentiality and anonymisation…about 20 specific questions

31. Workshops • format - half to one day per module • group size max = 20 with 2 facilitators • break-out groups and set exercises, feedback • Example: • Morning: dealing with confidential research information and consent agreements in research with people as participants (interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and so on) • Afternoon session focusing on metadata and data documentation for archiving data

32. More training • more consent and anonymisation, data description • consent for sharing audio-visual materials in social science • forthcoming day on security and encryption • digitisation of audio-recordings/paper-based social research data • transcription and TEI mark-up for web-based delivery • turning your project’s website into longer-term data documentation

33. Contacts • Louise Corti corti@essex.ac.uk UK Data Archive University of Essex Colchester Essex www.esds.ac.uk