General resources
Contents
- DoraNum
- INIST and INRAE courses
- Data management clusters resources
- Summary sheets
- OpenAire guides
- MITI Atelier Données guide
- Libguides
- Bootcamp
- 10 tips for structuring and opening your data
- How to open data for access
- Game
- Passports for doctoral students
- Training catalogues
- On-line courses from the University of Edinburgh
- On-line courses from Research Data Netherlands
- On-line courses from the UK Data Service
- Workshops from the MIT libraries
- Supports from the British Universities consortium
- The Research Data Managament Notebook
- How to FAIR
- Get to know the Eudat European tools
- Ideas from MOOCs
Many organizations have developed resources to introduce research staff to data management.
GETTING STARTED
DoraNum
Led by the Urfist network and INIST-CNRS, this project has produced a publication on the platform DoraNum (Données de la Recherche : Apprentissage NUMérique à la gestion et au partage) [Research Data: Digital learning on management and sharing]. Nine comprehensive presentations of subjects including challenges and benefits, legal aspects (ethics, scientific integrity), data management plan, metadata, lasting access codes, repositories, storage and archiving, data papers and data journals, access and visualization. A variety of content is used to present each topic simply, quickly and thoroughly. Each topic features a summary sheet (some of which have been translated into English), a video (“the minute”), the files (“the essentials” text or video) and a self-evaluation quiz. Other resources provide more detailed information (on data description, for example). An interactive curriculum on data management has also been developed. The DoraNum platform is regularly enriched with new content (for example, on software papers): you can subscribe to receive a notification each time new content is published.
INIST and INRAE courses
In “Une introduction à la gestion et au partage des données de la recherche” [An introduction to the management and sharing of research data] developed in 2014, INIST-(CNRS) provides a concise presentation on the basic notions of data management (issues, describing, publishing data) and best practices (life-cycle, data management plan). Quizzes and exercises are also available. Inist also offers regular webinars on open science (for example, on DMPOpidor, the data life cycle, etc.). On OSCAR (Ouvrir la Science, Connaissances à AcquériR) [Open Science, Knowledge to Acquire] the first 3 modules of INRAE’s Open Science training are now freely available on the Callisto platform.
Data management clusters resources
In France, each of the data management clusters provides training and resources. You can access the services offered here. A Zotero library contains all the practical sheets produced by the data management clusters.
Summary sheets
Cambridge University libraries offer guides with questions and answers about creating, organizing and sharing data and electronic laboratory notebooks.
The University of Delft also provides summaries and FAQs.
Princeton University provides a range of advice and resources in its Research Lifecycle Guide.
The DataOne platform (Data Observation Network for Earth), specialized in environmental sciences, provides a Data Management Skillbuilding Hub offering advice throughout the data lifecycle.
The OpenAire guides
OpenAire (1) provides a number of guides for researchers: funding requirements, data management, legal aspects.
MITI Atelier Données guide
Proposed by the inter-network working group “Atelier Données” of MITI, this guide is addressed to anyone wishing to learn about research data management, and its aim is to help the reader to analyse his needs and find solutions among the variety of communications and good practices presented.
Libguides
The University of Oxford has published libguides (2). Note in particular, courses offered by the IT Services Research Support Team.
Several libguides designed by the University Vrije of Amsterdam deal with the life-cycle of research from setting up a project to data storage, including collection and analysis.
The libguide from the University of Princeton offers testimonies featuring both “horror stories” and “success stories” about data management.
Bootcamp
The University of Bristol offers a quiz tutorial. With questions such as:
What is the useful life span of a hard disk? Should a data management plan be developed before producing data? What is the citation rate of publications with data sets?
10 tips for structuring and opening your data
On LibraryCarpentry, (3) The University of Utrecht publishes a resource about applying FAIR principles.
A manual on data opening
The on-line manual Open Data Handbook, created by the OpenKnowledge
Foundation includes an open data guide with case studies and numerous resources.
Game
INIST and DoraNum have designed a board game on data management: GopenDoRe, a card game divided into 4 parts (Management, Analysis, Dissemination, Archiving).
What’s in a Name? Can you find the right data files in time? This very short game proposed by the University of Pennsylvania provides an insight into the issues surrounding file naming. Other sequences of games on other themes are to come.
Passports for doctoral students
The Open Science Committee has designed several Passports to Open Science for doctoral students. In addition to Passport for Open Science – A Practical Guide for PhD Students, which is regularly updated, the following are available : specific guides for research data, codes and software, and a guide Get in on the debate. In a series entitled ‘Passeport : initiation à la science ouverte’ [Passport: an introduction to open science], five video capsules are broadcast on the CanalU channel, illustrated by testimonies from young researchers : qu’est-ce que c’est la science ouverte ? [what is open science?], des ressources ouvertes à découvrir [open resources to discover], la gestion des données et le cycle de vie des données [data management and the data lifecycle], la thèse en accès ouvert [open access thesis], la diffusion des travaux scientifiques en accès ouvert [disseminating scientific work in open access].
Training catalogues
Throughout the year, the URFIST network offers a catalogue of training courses, online or face-to-face, covering the entire research cycle.
The LabEx DRIIHM (Dispositif de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Interactions Hommes-Milieux) [InterDisciplinary Research Facility on Human-Environment Interactions] lists and describes in detail (theme, level, duration, etc.) 300 training resources on open science (data, publications, legal aspects, etc.) in its Open Science Resource Search Tool (ORRSO).
FOR IMPROVING SKILLS
Several resources are available to develop thorough knowledge about data management.
University of Edinburgh online courses
Mantra Research Data Management (MANTRA is an on-line course created by the University of Edinburgh). It is suitable for doctoral students, researchers, scientific and IT professionals. This well-respected course has been an model for many other initiatives and offers videos, feedback, exercises and best practices elements. Different topics available:
From the Mantra program, a resource available in Zenodo provides an overview of Research Data Management in four short modules (4): introduction, finding data, working with research data, planning data management. Two specialists and trainers in data management, Sarah Jones and Steve Diggs, also make their summer school teaching aids available (5) “CODATA RDA Research Data Science Summer School Teaching Materials”: RDM (Research Data Management), DMP (DataManagementPlan), Fair Data, How fair is your data? etc.
On-line courses from Research Data Netherlands
Essentials 4 Data Support, produced by Research Data Netherlands, offers three types of very interesting and comprehensive courses:
The “Online only formula (no registration required)”: choose your organization and follow courses depending on needs and priorities. The “Online only with user profile” formula: anyone can open an account and follow the course free-of-charge, with additional exercises and the possibility to make comments.
The third method: “Full course (on-line + classroom learning with certificate)” for a fee of $895. Certificate course. This link provides additional training resources, blogs, Twitter accounts, etc.
On-line courses from the UK Data Service
The British data service offers a general education program on data management: “Data management training resources” (6). The service published a second edition of the work Managing and Sharing Research Data in 2014: a guide to good practices. Content is available in html form here. It follows the life-cycle of research data with chapters featuring videos, case studies, check-lists, tools, templates, exercises, and internet resources.
Workshops from the MIT libraries
MIT’s libraries have set up a support service with thematic workshops plus teaching aids. Amongst these: Quick and dirty data management: the five things you should absolutely be doing with your data now, a method for organizing files and advice for improving version management of your data sets.
The Research Data Managament Notebook
This collection of exercises, divided into chapters, follows the life cycle of research data, covering such topics as data storage and backup, data organisation and naming, data description, file conversion for archiving, etc. Briney, K. (2023). The Research Data Management Workbook. Caltech Library. https://doi.org/10.7907/z6czh-7zx60
How to FAIR ?
How to FAIR ? is a website filled with resources about data management and FAIR principles. It is published by Danish universities and supported by the Research Data Alliance. The website displays many researchers interviews and contains many sections such as file format, metadata, licences, IDs… Concrete examples will also allow you to have a better understanding of data management. A short video presents the website’s goal. All of the website’s content (text, interview recording, pictures…) are accessible on Zenodo and are reusable.
Get to know the Eudat European tools
The EUDAT Training program is a training service for communities and researchers offering numerous webinars on topics such as DMPs, metadata, etc. It underlines the role of Eudat, support for research infrastructures and the services they offer (such as B2Share, B2Find, B2Access, B2Safe). The Event and Media section includes six webinars and a gallery of videos with experiences. Several case studies related to research projects are also described.
MOOC concepts
“Reproducible research: methodological principles for transparent science” is the theme chosen by three researchers (Arnaud Legrand, Christophe Pouzat and Konrad Hinsen) for their MOOC launched in March 2020. Tools such as Markdown, Jupyter, Rstudio and Org-mode are covered. A second part is also available to explore this theme from the point of view of tools and practices : Reproducible Research II: Practices and tools for managing computations and data. On the question of the reproducibility of research, see also “Cahuzac, E. (2023, décembre 4). Reproductibilité des données de recherche : définitions, enjeux, risques, bénéfices, recommandations. Les données, le nerf de la reproductibilité de la recherche [Reproducibility of research data: definitions, issues, risks, benefits, recommendations. Data, the key to reproducible research], On line (France). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10256820 “
Research Data Management and Sharing is a MOOC developed by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the University of Edinburgh. It is available on the Coursera platform.
More generally, Sorbonne University proposes an Open Science Mooc that can be followed throughout the year.
Open Science
For more information, the FOSTER on-line learning platform features multiple European training resources for people wanting to discover open science and acquire skills.
OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) aims to support open science in Europe with a platform providing access to research publications and data.
- A libguide is a content publishing tool for creating thematic guides. It is a tool widely used in libraries.
- LibraryCarpentry is a community of trainers in libraries and data centers who make teaching aids available for self-learning or for providing training courses.
- EDINA and Data Library. (2017, November). Research Data Management overview (Version 1.2). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1062722.
Sarah Jones, & Steve Diggs. (2018, October). Research Data Management sessions. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1451961.
Louise Corti, Veerle Van den Eynden, Libby Bishop, Matthew Woollard, Managing and Sharing Research Data, A Guide to Good Practice, 2014, Second Edition, Sage Publications.