Data management

A data management plan is a document that outlines how data will be treated during a research project and how it will be stored afterwards.

Typically it includes information about the project that will create the data, the people involved, proposed data storage, access to the data and licensing/intellectual property. It will also include information about how the data will be stored and retained once the project has ended.Data management plans are not static documents and can be altered as the needs of a project change. 

Some research funders require a data management plan as part of the application process. Aside from that, data management plans are optional but can provide benefit to any kind of research.

Ideally, a data management plan should be part of the planning for any project - but it's never too late. A plan can be created when a project is underway and can help to clarify any tricky issues that may arise (eg sudden lack of storage space).

Flinders Librarians will talk to you about your data management needs and register your plan in the ReDBox Data Management Planning system. If relevant, we can refer you to eResearch tools including high performance computing, collaboration spaces and data storage. At the end of the process, we will provide you with a PDF of your plan.

If things change, we can help you to change to plan.

OneDrive provides 1TB of space and allows you to share data with collaborators both inside and outside the University. It is suitable for research data considered "restricted" in the Flinders Information Classification. Further information on data storage options are available on the Staff Portal including options for highly confidential information.

For large datasets or those requiring use of high performance computing, eRSA may be able to help. For more information, please contact a Research Librarian via Service One.

Data sharing is the practice of letting people know about data you have created or collected and treating it as a research output - like a book, journal article or conference paper. In practice, it means making information about the data available - for example through Research Data Australia.

Further, it also means that the data is available to share. This might mean that researchers can click through to access, or that interested researchers need to seek permission to access.

Data sharing is the practice of describing datasets, making that information available openly and making the data available for reuse (either click through or as the result of a mediated process)

Open data is that which is available immediately for download under license.

Because it:

• treats the data as a research output (and therefore recognises the effort and skill required to create/collect the dataset)
• raises the profile of the researcher
• can produce citations
• can encourage new research collaborations
• may reduce duplication of research effort through data reuse
• may increase the speed of new discovery

Each data description produced with the Library is assigned with both a persistent URL and formatted citation. On request, we will allocate a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Using this, the data can be cited just like any other resource.

Most records are also made available through Research Data Australia which is harvested by Data Citation Index . This provides data citation counts like those for other research outputs in tools such as Web of Knowledge or Scopus.

The first step is to contact a Research Librarian via Service One.

There are a few ways we can work with you to create a description of your dataset. It may be as easy as reusing information from a data management plan you have created before, filling out a form, or we may be able to work from a publication based on work using the dataset.

We are flexible and will work in a way that fits in with you.