Digital Scholarship

Data Management 

Data Management has become increasingly important in recent years, especially as funding agencies have updated their requirements to make data public and available. Data Management Plans are now a key part of applications to prove that you have a plan for managing, sharing, and preserving your research data. There is an overlap between good Digital Project Management and Data Management, including naming conventions, documentation, and a lifecycle to work through. However, there are special considerations when it comes to data to aid in the collection, analysis, and sharing of your data for current and future scholars. Research data types include documents, spreadsheets, notebooks, questionnaires, recordings, photographs, sequences, test responses, specimens, models, algorithms, methodologies, and protocols. 

Planning 

Binghamton University uses DMPTool, designed to help researchers create ready-to-use data management plan templates for specific funding agencies. It also has step-by-step instructions and guidance for data management plans. 

To access the DMPTool:

• Visit the main page
• Log in with your Binghamton email.
• It should tell you your email is associated with Binghamton University and give you the option to Sign in with Institution (SSO)

From here, you are able to create a plan according to the standards set out by the agency. There are also sample plans available, public DMPs, and a table with documentation for each of the agencies requirements. You can share your DMP with collaborators at and outside of Binghamton and share it with colleagues to review your DMP or for departmental reporting purposes.

Managing 

Once you create your data management plan with DMPTool, you should have a map of what data management for your project will look like. Questions answered include

• Who will be responsible for which parts of the plan
• What types of data will be generated during the process and what format they will be 
• What kind of metadata will exist about the data 
• How you will give other access to the data and the levels of security involved
• Permissions for sharing and reusing the data 
• The projected life of the data beyond the project and the strategies for its preservation 
• Any associated costs related to the data management 

Sharing

Depending on the requirements set by the funding agency, your data may need to be accessible to certain people or everyone. Although not specifically a data repository, the ORB is available to host public data sets. For more options on Data Repositories NC State University Libraries has a list of available repositories depending on your field and requirements.