Title: Planning for Reusable Data
Course: Data Management Planning in the College Context > Section: Data Management Planning in the College Context

Why is a DMP Important?

The major Canadian federal funding agencies (NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR also known as the Tri-Agency) have a new Research Data Management Policy that requires the submission of a DMP for selected funding opportunities. This requirement may become increasingly common among funding agencies.

Creating a Data Management Plan (DMP) has many benefits to the researcher. A DMP is an opportunity for you as a researcher to:

- Think about data at the beginning of the project and how you will consistently name, store, and backup your data.
- Evaluate current practices and determine how they can be more effective.
- Plan for how you will preserve and share data in the long term.
- Help protect yourself from costly data-loss disasters.

Optional Video

The video below showcases how poor planning can result in unusable data at the end of the research lifecycle.

FAIR

It is advisable to incorporate FAIR principles for research data management and stewardship. The FAIR acronym stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Quote from the Tri-Agency RDM 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. To this end, the agencies support the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) guiding principles for research data management and stewardship.”

Government of Canada (2021). Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy. https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/interagency-research-funding/policies-and-guidelines/research-data-management/tri-agency-research-data-management-policy

Let us break down these four principles in further detail.

Select Reveal to reveal the definition.

Findability.

Reveal

To be able to re-use data it must be easily located. Data should be findable.

Accessibility.

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Once data has been found, it needs to be accessible. In this context, accessibility refers to considerations like authorisation, and authority - what is the plan for making the data practically usable and accessible?

Interoperability.

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The data must be able to work with other data, systems, applications, and workflows. It is best when considering research data management to consider how the research data will exist outside of the initial purpose and platforms. For example, your data should be archived in a widely available format such as CSV, TXT, or PDF.

Re-use.

Reveal

The aim is to make it as easy as possible to re-use data in the future, either by the original investigators, by other researchers, for reproducibility and so on. This reuse is achieved through sound metadata. Metadata refers to the information about the data itself. Ex. file names, data dictionary, data sharing protocol.

Sensitive Data

Sensitive data requires special RDM consideration. It might not be appropriate, for example, to make sensitive data available in open data repositories.

Sensitive data can include data such as:

Select each tile to reveal more information.

- Human Participant Data

- Location Data

- Proprietary Data

- Indigenous Data

Human Participant Data

Researchers must obtain consent to share de-identified participant data.

Location Data

Includes vulnerable species data, data from field sites in protected areas or from sensitive archaeological sites.

Proprietary Data

Includes things such as protected intellectual property, trade secrets, and financial information. Proprietary data is particularly relevant in regards to research partnerships between colleges and industry. Please review the intellectual property policies at your institution in regards to proprietary data.

Indigenous Data

Includes data collected in collaboration with Indigenous people and about Indigenous lands. Researchers must receive consent from the affected Indigenous community leaders to share data. When looking at special considerations for Indigenous data, researchers may consider utilizing the First Nations Principles of OCAP®. OCAP® stands for Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession. Another consideration would be the international CARE principles for Indigenous data governance. CARE principles were developed by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA). The acronym stands for Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics.

Activity: Reflection

What did you learn above that you can apply to your research or DMP? What did you learn above that you want to bring back to your research team?

Select Reveal Feedback to see feedback.

Reveal Feedback

Activity Feedback:

- Research Data Management Plans (DMPs) will ideally result in data that is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).
- DMPs help researchers plan how to preserve, secure, and share research data.
- DMPs are required for selected funding opportunities from the Tri-agency.
- Some types of sensitive data should not be shared, such as, human participant data, Indigenous data, proprietary data.

References:

2021. (n.d.). Research Data Management. Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Retrieved February 16, 2023, from https://alliancecan.ca/en/services/research-data-management

Attribution: NYU Health Sciences Library (2013). Data Sharing and Management Snafu in 3 Short Acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66oNv_DJuPc&t=5s

Government of Canada (2021). Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy. https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/interagency-research-funding/policies-and-guidelines/research-data-management/tri-agency-research-data-management-policy

Fair principles. GO FAIR. (2022, January 21). Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/.

Image Source:

Graham, S. (2016). Person holding pencil near laptop computer. Retrieved from Unsplash.

FLY :D. (2021). Red padlock on black computer keyboard. Retrieved from Unsplash.

M ACCLERATOR. (2020). Man in blue and white plaid button up shirt sitting on black chair. Retrieved from Unsplash.

Tuzes-Katai, T. (2020). Person holding white iPhone 5. Retrieved from Unsplash.

Energepic.com. (2016). Close-up Photo of Monitor. Used under the Pexels License

Girardelli, S. (2019). Brown and multicolored wooden bird décor.