Research Data Management

What Is Research Data Management?

Research Data Management (RDM) refers to good practice in planning, collecting, storing, using, sharing and preserving the data generated in any research project. It is increasingly accepted that good data management practice offers a number of benefits to researchers, and that an obligation of the research institution is to provide support and infrastructure for its researchers' data.

Both research funders and publishers increasingly expect that data resulting from research projects should be made available for scrutiny and re-use, whenever legal and ethical requirements allow. Where this is not possible, a public record of the data should be made available, such as in Pure, noting its location in a repository or other conditions of access. In most cases a version of the data should be kept safe and retrievable for a specified period of time after the end  of the project. In all cases, the creation of a data management plan (DMP) can help to clarify what should become of the data, as well as how it should be handled during the life of the project.

THe Research Data Lifecycle