Research Data Management: Benefits of Data Management
At a Glance
Why Manage your Research Data?
- Efficiency: makes your own research easier
- Safety: protect valuable data
- Quality: better research data = better research
- Reputation: enhances research visibility
- Compliance: with ethical codes, data protection laws, journal requirements, funder policies
Policies related to research and research data management
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UCD Research Data Management PolicyThe objective of the Research Data Management (RDM) Policy is to provide a framework for the management of research data to ensure that research data is stored, retained, made available for use and reuse, and disposed of according to best international practices for data management, as well as in compliance with legal, statutory, ethical, contractual and intellectual property obligations, and the requirements of funding bodies and publishers.
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EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)
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National policy statement on ensuring research integrity in Ireland [pdf]The national policy provides a robust framework that can usefully be adopted across all disciplines, by all research performing organisations and funders in Ireland.
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UCD Code of Good Practice in ResearchThe purpose of this code is to establish and maintain standards of best practice in research for all researchers in UCD who are engaged in research with human or animal subjects.
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UCD Data Protection Policy Apr 2020This policy applies to all personal data created or received in the course of University business in all formats and of any age. It applies to all locations where personal data is held by UCD.
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UCD Intellectual Property PolicyThis Policy supports excellence in innovation by encouraging the UCD Community to develop world-class Intellectual Property (IP) and commercialise it by licensing it to companies, institutions, etc to develop new innovative products and services.
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UCD Password Protection PolicyThis policy sets out UCD standards for the creation of strong passwords, the frequency of change and reuse of those passwords, the protection of those passwords
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UCD Research Ethics PolicyThe UCD Research Ethics Policy presents an overview on how research ethics is managed University-wide. It provides the basic principles of best practice in research for all research involving human and animal subjects in research.
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UCD Research Integrity PolicyThe purpose of this policy is to set out the principles of research integrity and research misconduct and outline the principles that underpin transparent, fair and effective procedures to deal with allegations of research misconduct when they arise.
Why Manage your Research Data?
Why do you need to manage your research data?
Research data are a valuable resource that often requires a great deal of time and money to create. There are a number of very good reasons why research data should be managed in an appropriate and timely manner.
1. Basic quality assurance within the project
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Increase research efficiency. Good research data management will enable you to organise your files and data for access and analysis without difficulty. Well managed data also helps individual researchers track the course of their own progress.
- Facilitate data security and minimise the risk of data loss. Use of robust and appropriate data storage facilities will help to reduce the loss of your data through accidents, or neglect.
2. Reproducibility of the research findings
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Ensure research integrity and validation of results. Accurate and complete research data are an essential part of the evidence necessary for evaluating and validating research results and for reconstructing the events and processes leading to them.
3. Re-use of the data by other researchers
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Ensure wider dissemination and increased impact. Research data, if correctly formatted, described and attributed, will have significant ongoing value and can continue to have impact long after the completion of a research project.
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Enable research continuity through secondary data use. Good research data management will permit new and innovative research to be built on existing information and prevent duplication of effort.
4. Funder Requirements
- Additionally research data should be managed to ensure compliance with a funding agency’s requirements. An increasing number of funding bodies request or require that their funding recipients create and follow plans for managing data (DMP's), storing or preserving it in the long term, and sharing some, or all data products with the public.
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