Do you need help managing your research data? Are you thinking of publishing your research data and don’t know where to start?
Get help managing your research data
UTS Library Reading Room
The researcher journey can be full of challenges, so when it comes to managing your most important research asset, you want the process to be simple.
The library offers you support for all your data management needs. Library staff can help with planning and implementing effective research data management practices. They can also provide guidance about how to publish your research data.
Managing your research data
The way you manage your data is a vital part of the research process. Research data management refers to how you gather, organise, store, and manage your data throughout the project. It also refers to planning, archiving, sharing and publishing your data.
All research projects at UTS are required to have a Research Data Management Plan (RDMP). RDMPs are online documents that record all your data management decisions and establish a connection between your project and your research data. They are living documents that should evolve as your project progresses.
“We kept trying to come at it from an integrity perspective,” explained Senior Specialist and Data Librarian Ria Hamblett. “If you ever need to defend your research, you need that data in place to be able to do so and it needs to be available and curated in such a way that you can make sense of it and show it to other people.”
If you ever need to defend your research, you need that data in place to be able to do so.
Effective research data management enables you to:
- manage risks, such as guarding against preventable data loss
- ensure the integrity of your research and supporting reproducibility
- increase the opportunity for research collaboration, engagement, and impact
- comply with publisher and funder requirements for publishing research outputs.
Access the Library's step by step guide to storing and archiving your data.
Publishing your research data
Publishing research data has become an integral part of the scholarly communication process as it promotes transparency, reproducibility, and the validation of research methods. Publishing research data refers to a set of practices that are more robust and sustainable than emailing files to your colleagues. These practices include submitting data to an online repository, portal, or aggregator. The research data and metadata therefore become discoverable, accessible, reusable, and persistently available for the future.
Through publishing your data you can:
- encourage scientific enquiry by enabling the validation of research methods
- maximise transparency and accountability through scrutiny of research findings
- promote new opportunities for collaboration
- reduce the cost of duplicating data collection.
"Increasingly, publishers are requiring access to the data that underpins the findings in the articles they publish. There could also be funder requirements around how you manage your data," Ria said.
Increasingly, publishers are requiring access to the data that underpins the findings in the articles they publish.
You can contact the Library to discuss other ways to publish data in order to maximise exposure of your results while meeting your ethical and legal obligations.
Find out more about publishing your research data.
Take control of your data with Stash
Stash is UTS's research data management system and the platform for all your data needs. It allows you to store your data in one place and manage your research data throughout the life of your project, from planning to archiving to publishing.
Stash can be used to help manage your research data by:
- creating a research data management plan (RDMP)
- creating an archival data record for the preservation of your data
- linking your plan to available workspaces
- store associated ethics permissions and data licences
- publishing your data.
Need help?
Librarians can assist you with research data management and publishing your research data.
Participate in Research Data Management self-paced training
Enrol in Research Data Management (RDM) self-paced online training, an introductory course to help you manage your most valuable research asset.
The library also offers research data workshops you can check out on RES Hub’s event page.
Attend online training on Creating Your Research Data Management Plan
All research projects at UTS are required to have a Research Data Management Plan (RDMP). Register now to learn more about creating your RDMP.
When: Wednesday, 25 September, 1 pm - 2.30 pm
Where: Online