Research Data Management: Further Guidance

Planning for the preservation and dissemination of your data in line with research funder/publisher terms:

• rdm@hull.ac.uk  (Kirstyn Radford, Research Outputs Specialist, Brynmor Jones Library)

Data protection, research integrity and ethics (Sharepoint sites for University of Hull researchers):

• Information Compliance - Data Protection Officer
• Research Governance and Impact Team
• Your Faculty Ethics Committee can advise on any data protection issues identified during the process of gaining approval for a new project.

Data ownership, licensing and knowledge exchange:

• Knowledge Exchange Hub for University of Hull researchers
• Research and Knowledge Exchange Contracts Support Team
• Trusted Research checklist for University of Hull researchers working with partners overseas or in industry

Data handling, including secure file storage, software installation and use of the University's High Performance Computer (VIPER) for processing high volumes of research data with low levels of sensitivity:

• IT Services Support Portal

Hull Health Trials Unit provides specialist support for clinical research, including mediated access to NHS data, and services to facilitate storage and processing of sensitive data, such as the Data Safe Haven:

• HHTUenquiries@hull.ac.uk

Funded by JISC and based primarily in Edinburgh, the Digital Curation Centre "is an internationally-recognised centre of expertise in digital curation with a focus on building capability and skills for research data management".  This short video (12 minutes) introduces their resources and services for researchers in the UK and elsewhere.  

Further information about the Digital Curation Centre's Training opportunities, including discipline-specific resources and recommendations for external providers.

A selection of learning resources developed for the academic researcher:

Start from the University's e-Learning Catalogue for access to the online modules (for University staff only):

• Data Protection and Information Security (mandatory)
• Understanding and Protecting Intellectual Property

The University's Research Culture programme includes workshops covering data management planning, intellectual property and open research, for all researchers:  browse their calendar of upcoming events for details and booking.

• 5 Common data-sharing myths in humanities and social sciences (2024)

Nash, Jack, Open Research Europe Blog, 11 Dec 2024. "Data sharing raises additional questions for those working in humanities and social sciences (HSS). In this blog post we debunk some common misconceptions within HSS and its associated fields."

• Open research data poses real world risks that need to be managed (2024)

Pasquetto, IV et al. LSE Impact Blog, 19 Nov 2024. "The growth of open science, has encouraged researchers to share their data to promote transparency, innovation, and collaboration. However, openness brings risks. Data misuse can take various forms, from accidental errors to deliberate manipulation, and it can undermine trust in science, slow progress, and even do harm".

• The O3 guidelines: open data, open code, and open infrastructure for sustainable curated scientific resources (2024).

Hoyt, C.T., Gyori, B.M., Sci Data 11, 547.   "An actionable road map to creating and maintaining resources that... can continue to be used and maintained by the community that they serve".

• How to be FAIR with your data (2022) 

A handbook written by a team of 40 collaborators from UK and EU research institutions, to help HEIs integrate FAIR data management principles into research skills programmes and research support/governance activity.  Written in an informal style suitable for adaptation into guides and teaching materials; free to download with a CC-BY licence.

• AGU: Data and Software for Authors (2021)

Written for authors submitting papers to AGU journals, but relevant to all researchers in STEM disciplines. Advice on selecting and describing data, choosing a repository, preparing a data availability statement, and citing data (including your own).

• Wellcome Open Research: Growing a culture of data sharing (2021)

Targeted at early career researchers, this resource from the health and medical research funder Wellcome Trust includes how-to guides, case studies, myth-busting and tips.

• Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  Information Commissioner's Office,  Jan 2021.

A plain English overview of the legal principles which apply to the collection, processing and retention of personal data, including legitimate bases for retaining data, and data subjects' rights.

• Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice, 2nd ed. (2020).  Louise Corti et al, Sage.

Written by experts at the UK Data Archive, this book is the globally-reaching guide for any postgraduate student or researcher looking to build their data management skills.

• The citation advantage of linking publications to research data (2020)

Colavizza et al, PLOS One 15(4): e0230416

• The CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide (2020)

A 200 page manual from the Consortium of European Social Sciences Data Archives, to help social science researchers make their research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).

• Sustainable and FAIR Data Sharing in the Humanities (2020)

Published by ALLEA (All European Academies), readable and practical recommendations.

• What is ALCOA+? (2020) 

A blog post from UK-based environmental monitoring business Microgenetics, outlining the ALCOA principles for data integrity (Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original and Accurate).  This framework was originally introduced by the US Food and Drug Administration in the 1990s and is now adopted by health and medical regulatory agencies worldwide. 

• Data Sharing: Convert Challenges into Opportunities (2017)

Ana Sofia Figueiredo, Frontiers in Public Health 2017; 5: 327

• The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship (2016)

Mark D. Wilkinson et al, Scientific Data 2016;  3: 160018

• Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch (2008-)

This UK-based charity's publications "provide authoritative guidance on a variety of digital preservation topics chosen by Coalition members... in an accessible and easily digestible manner". Recent topics include a series of guidance notes on preserving different format types (GIS, audio, moving images, email, spreadsheets etc).

• Data Science Journal (2002-)

Published by CODATA, a branch of the International Science Council, the scope of the open access Data Science Journal includes "descriptions of data systems, their implementations and their publication, applications, infrastructures, software, legal, reproducibility and transparency issues, the availability and usability of complex datasets, and with a particular focus on the principles, policies and practices for open data".  See also the CODATA Blog for more researchers' stories.

• Open Research Data Task Force Final Report (2019)

An overview of open research data policy and infrastructure landscape in UK, commissioned by Jo Johnson at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

• FAIR and Open Data: a briefing for policy makers and senior managers (2018)

Published by SPARC Europe, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.
See also their Open Data Resources (2017-), a collection of literature for open data policy-makers and advocates.

• The Open Data Institute

"The ODI was co-founded in 2012 by the inventor of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee and artificial intelligence expert Sir Nigel Shadbolt to show the value of open data, and to advocate for the innovative use of open data to affect positive change across the globe. We work with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem".

• Research Data Alliance

Launched in 2013 by the European Commission with US and Australian government departments, "with the goal of building the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing and re-use of data".  Resources include Working Groups for specific disciplines and functions, and infrastructure solutions such as metadata standards and model workflows.