Data storage

DMPonline is a web-based tool that supports researchers to develop data management and sharing plans. It contains the latest funder templates and best practice guidelines to support users to create quality DMPs.

Within the tool you will find custom guidance and example answers to help you develop your DMP. These are offered by the DCC, research funders and many research organisations. You can also browse the growing list of public DMPs published by other users of the tool for inspiration.

The service is free at the point of use for researchers to develop DMPs regardless of whether their institution or funder is a customer. DMPonline is also available on subscription for institutions that require a customised service.

Training kit for librarians who wish to gain confidence and understanding of research data management, based on open educational materials, covering five topics:

• Data management planning
• Organising & documenting data
• Data storage & security
• Ethics & copyright
• Data sharing

The kit uses the Research Data Mantra online course and selected exercises from the UK Data Archive. It further contains a training schedule, podcasts for short talks, presentation slides, evaluation forms, data curation profiles and reflective writing questions based on the experience of academic librarians who have taken the course.

Data Curation Profiles provide a complete framework for interviewing a researcher in any discipline about their research data and their data management practices.

Chapter on storage, backup, recovery and security strategies for research data, to protect them against accidental loss and against unauthorised manipulation. Particularly when collecting (sensitive) personal data it is necessary to ensure that these data can only be accessed by those authorized to do so. 

Focus on:

• different storage solutions and their advantages and disadvantages
• storage strategy for research data
• backup and disaster recovery strategy to ensure that avoid data loss, e.g. through human error or hardware failure
• protect data against unauthorised access with strong passwords and encryption
• relevant DMP questions on these topics

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is a centre of expertise in digital curation with a focus on building capability and skills for research data management. They provide expert advice and practical help to research organisations wanting to store, manage, protect and share digital research data.

Amongst the many resources they provide, they have a section of training materials available for developing and/or delivering research data management training. This includes their own DC 101 training materials for training researchers, as well as training materials for librarians and research administrators. They also point to training materials made available by other providers.

Free online course for those who manage digital data as part of the research process. It has been created for the use of post-graduate students, early career researchers, and also information professionals.

There are eight online units in this course and four data handling tutorials that will help you:

1. Understand the nature of research data in a variety of disciplinary settings
2. Create a data management plan and apply it from the start to the finish of your research project
3. Name, organise, and version your data files effectively
4. Gain familiarity with different kinds of data formats and know how and when to transform your data
5. Document your data well for yourself and others, learn about metadata standards and cite data properly
6. Know how to store and transport your data safely and securely (backup and encryption)
7. Understand legal and ethical requirements for managing data about human subjects; manage intellectual property rights
8. Understand the benefits of sharing, preserving and licensing data for re-use
9. Improve your data handling skills in one of four software environments: R, SPSS, NVivo, or ArcGIS

Each unit takes up to one hour, plus time for further reading and carrying out the data handling exercises. In the units you will find explanations, descriptions, examples, exercises, and video clips in which academics, PhD students and others talk about the challenges of managing research data. 

The Data Management Expert Guide is designed by European experts from the CESSDA Training Working Group to help social science researchers make their research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).

The guide is written for social science researchers who are in an early stage of practising research data management. With this guide, CESSDA wants to contribute to professionalism in data management and increase the value of research data.

The guide leads through the research data lifecycle from planning, organising, documenting, processing, storing and protecting data to sharing and publishing them. Taking the whole roundtrip will take approximately 15 hours.

Particular specialties of the guide is a focus on European diversity (for example in data protection legislation, research ethics, research funder DMP requirements, etc), developing a Data Management Plan as you progress through the guide, and topical expert tips.