Research Data Management

Data Management for researchers at CQUniversity.

Why share data?

By sharing/publishing datasets or descriptions of datasets, many benefits may be afforded to researchers:

Research data cited by other researchers may amplify the research impact
Making datasets more discoverable increases the potential for other researchers to become aware
Future collaboration with new colleagues is achievable
Research results may be substantiated and internal validity verified
Datasets will live past the project completion, allowing the data to take advantage of new technologies
Individual standing within your discipline may be improved, as sharing contributes to the community of knowledge.

The FAIR Data Principles opens in a new window seek to "achieve 'symmetry' between the data and the metadata".

Findability;
Accessibility;
Interoperability and
Reusability of data.

The ARDC FAIR data self-assessment tool opens in a new window will give you an indication of how well your work meets the FAIR principles.

Want the easiest way to publish your dataset and have an easy to share DOI? Visit the Using Data Manager tab of this guide for details on how to publish directly to our Institutional Repository aCQUIRe.

Reuse, and access considerations

Who will have access to the data and what level of access they are entitled to is an important consideration. Providing open access to confidential data and providing access to unauthorised people may be unlawful. Access regulations may also have implications on determining an appropriate storage option.

Data may be classified into open; shared; sensitive and closed. Access depends on the classification of the data.

Open data is publicly available to everyone. You must acknowledge the researchers by citing the data set.

Shared or mediated data is not publicly available. You need to apply for permission to access the data. If you meet the researcher/s criteria, the data can be made available. You must acknowledge the researchers by citing the data set.

Sensitive or confidential or restricted data may be made available by the researchers after any identifying information has been removed. You will need to request permission to access this data. You must acknowledge the researchers by citing the data set. Not sure if your data is sensitive for publishing purposes, check out ARDC's Publishing and Sharing Sensitive Data Flowchart.

Closed data is not available for sharing.

This short video from the Open Data Institute will give a quick demonstration of the differences:

Before allowing access determine:

Who has ownership of the data?
Are there ethical considerations?
What level of sensitivity or confidentiality is required for the data?
Are the data regulated under export control laws?

De-identification of sensitive data

The ARDC Publishing Sensitive Data Guide can help you to consider all aspect of publishing and sharing sensitive data.

Copyright and licensing

Creative Commons Australia opens in a new window provides information about the appropriate licence from the six used for open access to publicly funded information. Among those, the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) is the most popular and provides the greatest opportunities for re-use of information. Use of the Creative Commons licences promotes a common standard of licencing. If you haven't heard of Creative Commons before, here is a brief video explaining what its all about:

Creative Commons Australia - About the licences opens in a new window

Creative Commons Australia - Using a CC licence or licenced material opens in a new window

Creative Commons FAQs opens in a new window

ARDC's Copyright, data and licensing opens in a new window "provides an exclusive right to the copyright holder to reproduce, publish, adapt, communicate or perform a work." If the copyright owner does not license their research outputs (e.g. your data), no-one else can use it. In Australia, no license is regarded as the same as 'all rights reserved', confining any reuse to very limited circumstances.

Data sharing in context

A data management horror story by Karen Hanson, Alisa Surkis and Karen Yacobucci. Topics include storage, documentation, and file formats.

Community Owned digital Preservation Tool Registry (COPTR) describes tools useful for long term digital preservation and acts primarily as a finding and evaluation tool to help practitioners find the tools they need to preserve digital data. Their are 415 different tools described in COPTR, to find the tool you need browse the COPTR registry.

Open Data Stories

Open access: Open science: Talk data to me (ANU Library)

Clear, succinct video created by the Australian National University Library promoting the importance of making data sets openly available to be shared so that it may be replicated and built upon.