Managing Research Data

Citation

McDougall, E. (2012), "Managing Research Data", Library Review, Vol. 61 No. 7, pp. 541-543. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531211288290

This book has come at a time when the debate surrounding open access to research data is entering mainstream consciousness within universities and when universities are being required to ensure that they have explicit research data management frameworks in place.

I opened the book as someone new to the area of research data management, from beyond the library environment but with the need to be able to contribute knowledgeably to the debate within my university. I therefore started reading with the following questions:

1. 1.

   Will this give me the background information I need to understand discussions?

2. 2.

   Will it highlight the key generic issues that I need to be aware of ?

3. 3.

   Will it help me make useful contributions to work in this area at my institution?

At the back of my mind was the ever hopeful question – will this tell me what to do? Quick answer – no – and that should not the expectation of a book like this. However, within the short time that this book has been in my possession I have found it to be invaluable as an information resource. It provides a lot of very useful information and advice, summarised and broken down into relevant and manageable sections that can be read sequentially to provide an overall understanding of the area or dipped into as a precursor to more detailed investigation or as a refresher on the key issues and advances.

The book reads as a set of distinct articles/sections pulled together under a common theme and with a clearly outlined set of points to be covered. This means that the style and level of detail from one section to the next is quite different which led to some initial frustrations but the benefit became apparent with further reading. In addition, particularly given my bias on opening this book, I found that this is not a book to be read without a computer/internet connection on standby unless you are only interested in an overview. The true value comes from consulting the many web sites and reports that each section references. This makes for a more informative read that can be translated into practise, although it does make the book much longer than its 239 printed pages.

The opening section “Why manage research data?” sets the context both for the book and more generally for the key drivers behind the push for the active management of research data and some of the barriers to achieving this. It also opens up with the challenge to rethink traditional roles of librarians and information professionals.

“The lifecycle of data management” provides an introduction to the Digital Curation Centre, its curation model and a summary rationale for each of the various stages. This section provides a summary in advance of more detailed further discussion of the model within other sections. It therefore provides a useful overview to refer back to as a reminder of the overall context.

Jones provides the context for much of the current research data management work in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the section “Research data policies: principles, requirements and trends”, by looking at the external policies – the history and the rationale – as outlined by UK funders. The latter part of this section then puts this in the context of international agendas.

The section entitled “Sustainable research data” actually asks what is meant by the term sustainable data and what needs to be done to ensure our research data is sustainable. However, it also raises the point that it is not viable to sustain everything meaning that informed, rationale and sometimes difficult choices have to be made – effectively what to keep and what to delete.

Donnelly provides very practical advice in the section “Data management plans and planning”, not just what a plan should include but the role of planning within the overall context of research data management and the project lifecycle. It ends with an interesting case study from the UK Data Archive.

“Roles and responsibilities – libraries, librarians and data” sets the scene for a library‐centric view of support for research data management both in terms of the support and training that librarians could/should be providing and the training input they would require themselves to support this shifting role.

Proctor, Halfpenny and Voss review a number of projects as part of their section on “Research data management: opportunities and challenges for HEIs” to provide a review of current practises, possibilities for a team approach (between academics and those supporting them) and strategies for supporting implementation of research data management frameworks, including some useful positive statements to help with securing institutional buy‐in.

The next two sections look at national and the international strategies for data curation, respectively. These sections give significant historical background to the different approaches to data curation adopted within the UK, Australia and the USA and enable an interesting comparison between the different strategies. On completing these sections it was interesting to reflect back on how the overarching driver for open access to research data, i.e. to help a researcher find and re‐use existing research data, may be supported by the different national approaches.

The final section “Emerging infrastructure and services for research data management and curation in the UK and Europe” introduces the concept of “research e‐infrastructure”, recent work in these areas, both in the UK and Europe and issues likely to affect future developments. It provides the thought‐provoking quote from e‐Infrastructure Reflection Group (e‐IRG, 2010) who observed “The worst possible scenario is that all new RI [research infrastructures] build their own data infrastructure resulting in 250‐300 data silos of limited compatibility and interoperability”.

A lot of the sections in the book are based on case studies and project reports which in themselves have a time lag between completion of work and completion of the report. This needs to be taken into account when reading the book as, although great for setting the scene, due care must be taken with some of the facts stated which are by their nature time‐dependent.

As I have already stated, I found this book to be an excellent (if not always easy) read but I was starting with a very low knowledge base. For those with an existing background in this area, the value may come from the summarising and critiquing of the state of play in 2011 and the extensive reference lists that have been pulled together for each section by the authors.