Managing active research in the University of Edinburgh

Robin Rice University of Edinburgh

(@sparrowbarley)Jisc-CNI conferenceOxford, 6 July 2016

Elements of the presentation

• Funded & unfunded research, PGR students, collaborators

• Managing & support for …– research grants– research outputs– research data

• Simplified research lifecycle– (before – during – after)

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New Research Management and Administration System (grants)Worktribe - Empowering and supporting research administrators and investigators from idea through costing, approvals, award, post-award management and closure.• A recent requirements and procurement project focused on

delivery of a new 'Worktribe Research Management' system to support improved pre-award and post-award business processes across the University.– 3 pilot schools / institutes November 2015– Go-live across university April 2016

• The new 'Worktribe Research Management' system is integrated with the existing Finance, HR and PURE systems.

• https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/programme/rmas3

Managing research outputs: guidance for authors; OJS

1. Make your work Open Access 5. Acknowledge your funder

2. Use your name consistently 6. Statement on research data

3. Use an ORCID identifier 7. Cite the DOI and OA links

4. Institutional affiliation 8. Claim your digital space

‘Ensure your research reaches the widest possible global audience, is eligible for submission in research assessment exercises, and fulfils funder requirements.’

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Type, format volume of data, chosen software for long-term access, existing data, file naming, structure, versioning, quality assurance process.

Information needed for the data to be read and interpreted in future, metadata standards, methodology, definition of variables, format & file type of data.Restrict access to data, risks to data security, appropriate methods to transfer / share data, encryption.

Secure & sufficient storage for active data, regular backups, disaster recovery

Make data publicly available (where possible) at the end of a project, license data, any restrictions on sharing, access controls?

Select data to keep, decide how long data will be kept, in which repository, costs involved in long-term storage?

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Managing Research Data(from researcher training)

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Who manages active data?

• RDM Policy (2011) sets out roles and responsibilities for researchers & the institution– Researchers are responsible for their work– Enabling role of institution• Services, including stewardship• Monitoring compliance

• Principal Investigators• Research Institutes & Schools 6

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From RDM programme to Research Data Service…• RDM programme a result of both

bottom-up (‘action group’) activity and top-down policy implementation

• Services had various providers and their purpose and names were confusing

• New single service has SO & SOM with Virtual Team across Information Services

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Before -

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After (Simplified data lifecycle)

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Tools & support for working with data

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Finding and analysing data

• What is Data Library & Consultancy? • The Data Library & Consultancy team assists

researchers to discover and use datasets for analysis, learning and teaching.

• Data librarians are available to help you find answers to data-related questions.

• Tools include a data catalogue and the Survey Documentation and Analysis online data browser

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Storing data

• What is DataStore? • DataStore is file storage for active research

data, and is available to all research staff and postgraduate research students (PGRs).

• DataStore provides a free individual allocation for each researcher, as well as shared group spaces. Additional capacity of virtually any size is available.

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Transferring data

• What is DataSync? • DataSync is a tool to synchronise and share

research data with collaborators. It has an app to synchronise data to computers and mobile devices, and a web interface to allow access to data from any web browser.

• Data can be shared with anyone who has an email address, via the web interface.

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Versioning software

• What is Subversion? • Subversion is a version control tool which allows users

to store code. It is also available as an extension called SourcEd which provides a web based collaboration tool integrated with your repository.

• When documents stored in a Subversion repository are updated the old versions are kept so you can revert if necessary. The service also allows multiple people to collaborate on documents.

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Data management support

One-to-one support is available on the following areas of RDM:• Writing and reviewing DMPs;• Creating SOPs for metadata collection and

publication;• Creating SOPs for good data management

practice;• Choosing a data repository and preparing data

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Training - Online

• MANTRA: MANTRA is a free, non-credit, self-paced course designed for postgraduate students and early career researchers which provides guidelines for good practice in research data management

• Research Data Management and Sharing MOOC: This free five-week course - created by the Universities of Edinburgh and North Carolina - is designed to reach learners across disciplines and continents.

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MANTRA sessions by country 2012-2016

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Sessions by city: January – June 2016

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www.coursera.org/learn/data-management #RDMSmooc

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MOOC’s contents

• Understanding Research Data• Data Management Planning• Working with Data• Sharing Data• Archiving Data

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Training workshops

• Creating a data management plan for your grant application

• Managing your research data: why is it important and what should you do?

• Working with personal & sensitive research data

• Good practice in research data management• Handling data using SPSS

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RDM training take-up, 2014-2016

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Current pilots

• ResearchSpace ELN• Secure data service

• Also looking at interoperability with cloud solutions such as– Open Science Framework– European Open Science Cloud

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THANK YOU

To follow developments, subscribe to our Edinburgh Data Bloghttp://www.ed.ac.uk/is/datablog

R.Rice@ed.ac.uk

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