Research Data Services

About Research Data Management

Research data management refers to the processes applied through the lifecycle of a research project to guide the collection, documentation, storage, sharing and preservation data resulting from research, scholarship, or other creative works (Tri-Agency, 2021).

What are Research Data?

Research data describes any materials that have been collected, observed, or created to support original research findings. What materials are considered as research data vary according to research discipline and community. 

Digital forms of research data can include:

• documents, spreadsheets
• laboratory notebooks, field notebooks, diaries
• questionnaires, transcripts, codebooks
• audiotapes, videotapes
• photographs, films
• slides, artefacts, specimens, samples
• models, algorithms, scripts
• contents of an application (input, output, logfiles for analysis software, simulation software, schemas)
• methodologies and workflows
• standard operating procedures and protocols

Non-digital data such as physical laboratory notebooks, field samples, and sketchbooks are often unique. You should assess the long-term value of any non-digital data and plan how you will describe and retain them.

Intro to Research Data Management

This brief video introduces you to the data lifecycle and the importance of research data management. Further information can be found on the Pathways to Research Data Management Open Science Framework page.

Research Data Lifecycle

The lifecycle of research data often exceeds the time span of the research project responsible for creating it. It is important that data are well managed and curated over the course of a research project in terms of their organization, description, and preservation, so that they can be reused in future research over the long term.

This video reviews the key stages of the research data lifecycle (UK Data Service).