Thing 3: Data in the research lifecycle

Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• How does data and its management change over time?

Objectives

• Getting started: follow the pink circles around the data lifecycle

Getting started: The lifecycle of research data

Data often have a longer lifespan than the research project that creates them. Follow-up projects may analyze or add to the data, and data may be reused by other researchers. Journals publishers are increasingly mandating that the data underpinning a journal article be retained and made accessible for the long term.

A data lifecycle shows the different phases a dataset goes through as the research project moves from “having a brilliant idea” to “making groundbreaking discoveries” to “telling the world about it”

Data Lifecycle

1. Take a look at the UK Data Archive Research Data Lifecycle
2. Click on each of the pink circles to see what happens with data at each stage of the lifecycle.
3. How does this mesh with your understanding of the research lifecycle?

Data through the lifecycle

What other things impact how data is managed through the lifecycle? eg funding policies which make sharing the data mandatory, or data which is part of an ongoing longitudinal study.

Learn more: Managing data through the lifecycle

Research Lifecycle Models provide a high-level overview of the stages and actions during the research lifecycle required for successful management of data. Lifecycle diagrams can be very complex, and the complexity is not always related to big data.

DCC Curation Lifecycle

1. Take a look at the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model which concentrates of preservation and curation within data management.
2. What modification or addition you would include to make this model contextualized to your situation?

Challenge me: Research data management in practice

Data management is likely to be most effective where it is integrated into existing system-wide research and administrative processes. New software and products are being developed particularly with this in mind.

Research Data Management in Practice

• Scan through this guide to Research Data Management in Practice (PDF, 0.74 MB).
• Look carefully at Figure 1 Key Steps in Research Data Management, Section 3: Steps in Research Data Management.

Managing Research Data

What are the emerging opportunities for institutions to integrate management systems for their research data assets?

Key Points

• Research data is critical to solving the big questions of our time.