Research Data Management & Sharing

Frequently Asked Questions 

Research Data Management & Sharing as a pilot service was established at the University a decade ago with two aspirational policies, the Research Data Policy and the Research Data Deposit Policy. During those ten years there have been significant developments in RDM strategy and practice, and a new Research Data Management and Sharing Policy (effective from 30th March 2023) was created to clearly articulate new policy and operational requirements and better align RDM activities with the University’s strategic research and Knowledge Exchange goals.

Key changes aimed at ensuring the highest standards of data collection, organisation, storage, sharing and preservation are:

  • Consolidation of the two existing policies into a single RDMS Policy.
  • Updated and expanded content reflecting UK and global sector developments, including reference to the FAIR data principles and UKRI Open Access (OA) Policy (August 2021)
  • Enhanced requirement that all staff and PGR student projects have a data management plan (DMP) in place prior to project commencement and maintain it throughout the project lifecycle.
  • New requirement, in accordance with the UKRI OA Policy and publisher guidelines, for researchers to include a Data Access Statement in publications.
  • Addition of section on rights relating to research data

There are a range of policies and guidelines relating to the conduct research within the University. Reference should also be made to the University's Research and Knowledge Exchange Services portal and the University Ethics Committee web page.  

Related internal University policies:

General research and RDMS policies:

A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a written document which outlines the types of data which will be collected/generated during a research project/study; by what means the data will be collected/generated; where it will be stored during the project, and what will happen to it after project completion.

DMPs generally cover the following key areas: Data Collection | Documentation and Metadata | Ethics and Legal Compliance | Storage and Backup | Data Curation and Open Access to Data | Responsibilities and Resources

This said, many research funders have their own templates for DMPs, which funding applicants will be expected to adhere to. Such templates are often found within the funding scheme documentation.

Yes, all University researchers are expected to create/implement a project-specific DMP – as outlined in the Research Data Management & Sharing (RDMS) Policy.

There is a generic Data Management Plan template and tips for writing an effective DMP on the Data Management Plans

A number of training courses are available to support research data management planning, details of these are available from the DAT Gateway

Moreover, one-to-one meetings can be arranged to discuss data management planning for your project/s, please contact the RDMS team to arrange.

The Principal Investigator (PI) should ideally lead on this but DMPs should be collaborative documents, if this best reflects the nature of the research project/study.

There are three steps to successfully publish FAIR data that supports a publication or thesis:

  1. Deposit your data in an appropriate, trustworthy data repository. If you decide to deposit in Pure, create a basic dataset record and send it “for validation”.
  2. Receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the deposit. In Pure, a “placeholder” DOI will be issued for inclusion in a Data Availability Statement.
  3. Create a Data Availability Statement using the placeholder DOI provided. Return and complete the dataset record In Pure. The Pure dataset record much be validated, and a public Knowledgebase record created, before the publication containing the Data Availability Statement is published.

For further details see our LibGuide, “Integrated Workflow for Publications and Datasets”

Our dedicated RDMS website provides guidance on how to deposit your data in Pure. If you wish to discuss data deposit in more detail, please contact the RDMS team and staff within the library are available to provide tailored support by email, in person and via Teams/Zoom.  

All data deposited with Pure will be retained for a minimum of ten years. Once the dataset record in Pure has been validated, RDMS staff within the library will process the data for preservation using Archivematica, the University’s preferred open-source preservation application.  

There is no change for researchers to deposit data in Pure.

For UKRI funded research “it is appropriate to use public funds to support the management and sharing of publicly funded research data…As such, all costs associated with research data management are eligible under UKRI funding.” 

General guidance on the costing of RDM activities is available from the UK Data Service, this includes a Data management costing tool.

Help and advice with Costing your project is available from the Costing team in Research & Knowledge Exchange (RKES).

 

Yes, you can opt to use a different data repository however, a metadata only ‘registry’ record should be created in Pure which references the external data repository and deposit. If no suitable external data repository can be identified, then data can always be deposited in Pure.

A wide spectrum of potential data repositories is available (e.g., see the the re3data index) but data should be deposited where it will receive the greatest visibility and impact. The terms & conditions of any contractual and ethics agreement should be consulted before depositing data to ensure the data repository conforms to accepted requirements, such as the FAIR Principles or the Core Trust Seal.

Funder guidelines should also be consulted as they may stipulate discipline specific repositories for deposit, e.g., the UK Data Archive is the designated data repository for ESRC funded social science data.

Yes. Wherever possible deposit data should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”. However, there are a number of visibility options available in Pure, which can be applied to safeguard any privacy issues. The ‘confidential’ option in Pure is reserved for very sensitive data where even the metadata cannot be made public, but in most cases a public record of the deposit can be created while restricting or embargoing access to the data itself.

If working with confidential and/or sensitive data, researchers must consult any contractual and ethical agreements, before depositing data.

Data, relating to Patent Applications should not be uploaded to Pure, or any other data repository, until cleared by the IP & Commercialisation team.

For support on the deposit of confidential data in Pure please contact the RDMS team.

 

 

Yes. On leaving the university your login access to Pure will cease, however, in most cases data can simply be retrieved via the University’s Knowledgebase Research Information Portal.

If data has been deposited with restrictions, then the RDMS team should be contacted to arrange the transfer of data. The use of the data will be determined by the terms & conditions of the data deposit licence.  

In exceptional circumstances data can still be deposited in Pure after leaving the university. The RDMS team should be contacted in such circumstances and the deposit coordinated with a previous supervisor, PI or research project staff.