Watch (Some) Research Data Management Best Practices! by James Doiron and Jane Fry on YouTube.
This guide promotes the responsible preservation and sharing of research data by Centennial College researchers.
Prairie College Library supports researchers as they adhere to Canada's Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy:
"The agencies believe that research data collected through the use of public funds should be responsibly and securely managed and be, where ethical, legal and commercial obligations allow, available for reuse by others."
(Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy For Consultation, 2021)
Data Management Plan: A “data management plan” (DMP) is “a living document, typically associated with an individual research project or program that consists of the practices, processes and strategies that pertain to a set of specified topics related to data management and curation. DMPs should be modified throughout the course of a research project to reflect changes in project design, methods, or other considerations” (Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, Frequently Asked Questions, Government of Canada 2021)
Research Data: “Research data” are data that are used as primary sources to support technical or scientific enquiry, research, scholarship, or creative practice, and that are used as evidence in the research process and/or are commonly accepted in the research community as necessary to validate research findings and results. Research data may be experimental data, observational data, operational data, third party data, public sector data, monitoring data, processed data, or repurposed data. What is considered relevant research data is often highly contextual and determining what counts as such should be guided by disciplinary norms.” (Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, Frequently Asked Questions, Government of Canada 2021).
Research Data Management: “Research Data Management refers to the storage, access and preservation of data produced from a given investigation. Data management practices cover the entire lifecycle of the data, from planning the investigation to conducting it, and from backing up data as it is created and used to long term preservation of data deliverables after the research investigation has concluded. Specific activities and issues that fall within the category of data management include: File naming (the proper way to name computer files); data quality control and quality assurance; data access; data documentation (including levels of uncertainty); metadata creation and controlled vocabularies; data storage; data archiving and preservation; data sharing and reuse; data integrity; data security; data privacy; data rights; notebook protocols (lab or field)” (Committee on Data, International Science Council).
Data deposit is now a common and expected part of the research process. Several examples are listed below of funding agency and publisher expectations with regard to data deposit.
"All research data collected with the use of SSHRC funds must be preserved and made available for use by others within a reasonable period of time. SSHRC considers "a reasonable period" to be within two years of the completion of the research project for which the data was collected".
"You must make any data, original code or materials that underpin published research findings accessible to other researchers at the time of publication. This long-standing requirement extends across all our funded research – from basic science to clinical trials."
"After publication, all data and materials necessary to understand, assess, and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available to any reader of a Science Journal. After publication, all reasonable requests for data, code, or materials must be fulfilled."
