DMTpsychPostgraduate training for research data

management in the psychological sciences

Richard R. Plant, Dept of PsychologyRichard R. Plant, Dept of Psychology

Background

1 August 2010 - 31 July 2011 JISC Managing Research Data (JISCMRD) funding

programme - Research data management training materials (RDMTrain) strand

Lead institution The University of York, Dept of Psychology

Partner institutions The University of Sheffield, Dept of Psychology (clinical) Sheffield Hallam University, Dept of Psychology

A Little More Detail

Project addresses the need for postgraduates in the psychological sciences to ‘develop a sustained awareness of the creation, organisation, validation, sharing and curation of data’ and for data skills to be made ‘a core academic competency’ (Pryor and Donnelly 2009 ). It aligns with policies requiring a coordinated approach to curation and open access for digital research outputs.

The psychological sciences routinely produce large volumes of increasingly complex research data. Datasets in many areas are generated by equipment and tools that are still considered leading-edge: functional brain imaging (fMRI), EEG, MEG, eye tracking, computer-based paradigms, etc. Other areas of the psychological sciences produce equally valuable datasets using less technical methods but bearing additional ethical complexity, for example, in clinical research.

The importance of storing and preserving data for wider reuse and repurposing of research data is widely recognised within the psychological sciences.

Researchers in the psychological sciences often remain unsure how to apply to their own specific circumstances. Exacerbated by the wide range of funding sources for research across the psychological sciences including BBSRC, ESRC, JISC, MRC, EPSRC, Wellcome and the Nuffield Foundation, and the level of support and facilities within a particular institution.

Aims and Objectives

DMTpsych will create discipline-focussed postgraduate training materials that can be embedded into postgraduate research training for the psychological sciences. Materials will consist of: PowerPoint slides and an associated workbook containing psychology specific guidance on completing the DCC’s Data Management Planning Tool (DMPT), and a copy of the DMPT to be completed by students.

The lectures will be structured along the lines of the existing DCC DMPT with the eight key sections forming the centrepiece of six psychology specific lectures of up to two hours each. Guidance will be transferred to the online DMPT in collaboration with DCC.

Progress to Date

Written a set of Psychology specific guidance notes for completing the DCC’s “Checklist for a Data Management Plan v3.0”

Each question explained in language appropriate to Psychologists

Scenario based on 1935 classic Stroop paper provided example responses (Red, Green, Blue)

Field trialled this in booklet form (34 pages) 15 postgraduate psychology students across the three

sites and disciplines Complete a plan and also comment on guidance notes Qualitative analysis in NVivo / Latent Semantic Analysis Produce a refined guide based on feedback and retrial

Response to Guidance Notes

Poor at first – wiki based (split into 10 sections) Good in the end – used the exact same content

but formatted into sectionised printed booklets Took longer than they thought Majority had no idea who was the “go-to guy” or

department within their institution Wanted more copy and paste examples e.g. for

file formats etc. Worryingly many didn’t understand how their data

was being backed up now or even if it was!

Example Guidance Note Feedback

DMP 2.1 Give a short description of the data being generated or reused in this research

Do you have to out how big you think the data set would be (in Mb and Gb) like the example does? I don’t know how big my current data set is off hand, I imagine anticipating it would be difficult. GT – JM

It isn’t clear from the guidance whether or not to quantify the amount of data created. If so, it might be useful to give a rough guide, e.g. a transcribed hour long interview = xKb; a standardised questionnaire = xKb; and so on. – C1

The guidance in quite clear here and the example very useful, however I have no idea how to calculate the amount of data that will be produced. Could be clearer whether you want information on just experimental data or also any personal data collected in the course of the study. Also, as the example study uses quite straightforward data, it may be of use to indicate how much detail should be given for a questionnaire based study with more variables. – C4

I wouldn’t know how to estimate in Mb or Gb how much data I will have. If there is a simple way to calculate this perhaps it could be included. – L

The example provides an estimate of dataset size but the guidance notes do not explicitly ask for it. I wouldn’t know how big the data size is likely to be at this point. M

I think at this point, in a project that employs a mixed methodology, it becomes a little difficult to complete. - SD

PowerPoint Lecture Series

1. Historical and conceptual issues and best practice

2. Introduction and context to psychology-specific DMPT / Legal and ethical issues

3. Access, data sharing and re-use / Data standards and capture methods

4. Short-term storage and data management / Deposit and long-term preservation

5. Resourcing / Adherence, review and long-term management

6. Completion of DMPT in workbook / reflection / feedback / grading

Light Touch / Fun / Interesting

Potential to be right up there with statistics courses in terms of popularity

Historically based introduction Focus on the scientific method Key Psychology figures on the way Mix in some odd habits, unusual deaths and fraud Gradually narrow focus and then split into

workgroups after each lecture / practical examples from their own work

Hopefully enjoyable…

What’s the worse that could happen?

That sounds BAD

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/regenesis/pictures/These pictures were taken by Harvey Rutt

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail Data Management

Planning isn’t just about catastrophic events. It’s about maintaining data and sharing it freely over the longer term. You may even want to use it again yourself!

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

Training unit for psychology postgraduates Associated workbook containing psychology-specific

guidance on completing the DMPT Raise awareness in the psychological sciences of the need

for research data management skills training Foster collaboration between partner departments and

centres of expertise in research data management Deliver a number of engagement activities and events to

launch the training materials Gain an understanding of, and report on, the approaches of

postgraduates in the psychological sciences to research data management

Work with key agencies to support the development and dissemination of training materials

Produce publicity materials for the training materials