Why Manage Your Data?

Data Management

Increasingly libraries are planning and implementing data management services that support the discovery, access, sharing, archiving, and preservation of research data generated at their institutions. Why should librarians advocate for research data management? (adapted from MIT Libraries Data Mangement Research Guide)

Increase your research impact: Making your data available to other researchers can impact discovery and relevance of your research.

Save time: Planning ahead for your data management needs will save you time and resources.

Preserve your data: Depositing your data in a repository safeguards your investment of time and resources while preserving your research contribution for you and others to use.

Maintain data integrity: Managing and documenting your data throughout its life cycle will allow you and others to understand and use your data in the future.

Meet grant requirements: Many funding agencies now require that researchers deposit data collected as part of a research project.

Promote new discoveries: Sharing your data with other researchers can lead to new and unanticipated discoveries and provide research material for those with little or no funding.

Support open access: Be a catalyst for research and discovery. Show your support for open access by sharing your data.
 

Infrastructure & Research Support Issues

Cyberinfrastructure

"The comprehensive infrastructure needed to capitalize on dramatic advances in information technology has been termed cyberinfrastructure." (From "NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery," NSF Cyberinfrastructure Council, September 26th, 2005, Ver. 4.0, page 4)

Cyberinfrastructure content addresses development of new research environments that support advanced data acquisition, data management, data storage, data integration, data mining, and data visualization.

• Initial Findings from a Study of Best Practices and Models for Cyberinfrastructure Software Sustainability (2013) – This white paper presents the common themes, ideas, and recommendations that emerged from in-depth interviews with the leaders of 12 distinct cyberinfrastructure software projects.

Business Models

• Who’s Paying the Data Bill? (2012) – Article exploring options for funding institutional data management and preservation costs.

Case Studies

• Development of a Pilot Data Management Infrastructure for Biomedical Researchers at University of Manchester (2012) – Discusses the pilot implementation of MaDAM, a data management infrastructure at the University of Manchester, UK. MaDAM’s technical and governance components are integrated with built-in flexibility to meet the needs of cross-disciplinary research groups.
• Information Management Challenges to Integrated Inventory and Monitoring of Forest Ecosystem Resources (1999) – Explores the need for development of a federated information infrastructure that provides seamless access to shared interdisciplinary data and information resources that address ecosystem issues. (e.g. global climate change) Despite technical, semantic and social impediments to the development of this infrastructure, author recommends proactive steps that can be taken now to facilitate integrated research.

last edited 9/22/2020