Tag Archives: research data

Research Data Management – a new area for the library

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During spring 2017, the library has participated in an education in managing research data. The education has been led by the Swedish National Data Service (SND) and has included several different aspects of managing research data; creation of data management plans, description of data, file management, archiving and making data available to others. For three whole days, the library team for research support, along with archivist and legal experts at the university, has studied and discussed these issues. The education has been very rewarding, and given a deeper insight to how complex these issues are, not least the legal aspects of data management. This becomes especially clear when research is about people, and personal information is handled.

After the education at SND, a training package for researchers has been planned out, and a test of this has been carried out during the late spring. For two half days, four researchers at the university have participated in lectures and workshops on the management of research data, focusing on their own data. To be able to deepen the discussions with researchers who are experts in their own data, has been rewarding to all involved (including researchers). The researchers who participated in the training are Daniel Ekwall, Helena Francke, Katarina Karlsson and Laura Darcy.

The first half day was about data management plans. Data management plans are really no news in the research process. What’s new is that the data management plan is a coherent document answering all questions about why and how data is collected, how it is preserved, and who has access to it. This document needs updating continuously during the research process. Previously, similar issues may have been raised for research applications but not at the same level of detail. Some tools that could facilitate the work on data management plans were demonstrated.

The second half day was used to talk about legal aspects of data management and archiving of research data. The focus was on the new data protection regulation, which will come into force in May 2018. The four researchers had many questions regarding the handling of personal data in the light of the new regulation.

The education at SND will be the basis for establishing a working group at the University of Borås, whose task is to assist researchers with data management plans, archiving research data and making research data accessible. Currently, the prospective group is called Data Access Unit (DAU). Similar work is ongoing at most Swedish universities since the issue of archiving and open-source research data is high on the EU agenda (Horizon 2020, for example, requires open-source research data) and in Sweden it is assumed that many research funding will in future require the inclusion of data management plan in the application for research funding and open access to research data.

Do you want us to come to your research group for a conversation or workshop about research data and data management plans? Please contact us!

Read previous posts about research data in Forskningsrelaterat.

What is a data management plan good for?

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A data management plan (DMP) is a term that we hear quite often nowadays. It is not uncommon outside Sweden that researchers have to submit a DMP to be able to apply for research funds. This will probably be the case in Sweden as well in the future, and it is therefore of importance that researchers in Sweden are informed what a DMP is and how they can use it for their own benefit.

A DMP is pretty much what it sounds like – it’s a document describing how you plan to manage your data during and after a research project. The document describes things like how the data will be stored, if and how you are going to make the data freely available, and what kind of data you are working with. But a DMP is more than just a document for administration. Foremost it’s a document for the researcher to simplify the process of research. If you use it, many tasks relating to your research will gain from it.

The most important aspect of the DMP is that it significantly simplify for the researcher to return to a research project at a later point in time. A well structured and documented DMP makes it possible for you to get an overview over what data you have used before, what role they have in the research, and why you have made certain decisions.

What does a data management plan contain?

There are several guides to what a DMP should contain. Digital Curation Centre has a checklist, for example, that lists questions regarding administrative aspects, data collection, metadata and documentation, and more. By going through the checklist and answer the questions you will take a stance on several important issues regarding your research.

A living document

A DMP is not supposed to be just an administrative task when applying for research funds. You should update the document regularly when you make new decisions in your research. If you for example make changes in your data, removing or adding a column, or changing a definition, you should write this down in your DMP. This way you can always go back and check the exact process of your work.

Why should you write a data management plan?

There are several reasons why to write a DMP, except the obvious one that it might be needed to require funding. A DMP is a good way to structure the research process and ahead of time reflect on several important decisions about the research. If you work in a research team a DMP can be a way to help distribute fields of responsibility between the team members. The DMP also makes the task to describe and make a plan for your research data, both for making them freely available and to make sure you yourself can re-sue them at a later time. If someone questions your research, you have a document where every decision is recorded. This makes it very easy to defend your choices during the research, even several years after the project has ended. Lastly, you may want to return to a research project a couple of years later. A DMP makes it easy to read up on everything that you did, and makes sure that you don’t forget anything important concerning the project or its data.

Kristoffer Karlsson

Research misconduct and research data

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There is a presumption that researchers’ keep their raw data in order, that there are lab journals and notes so that someone else can test the results by duplicating the research. This is not always the case. Sweden and most other countries do not have an adequate system to detect or expose research irregularities. The structure in place in Sweden today does not protect the one reporting of the irregularities or the one who has been suspected of misconduct, particularly well. A doctoral student might not dare to cast suspicion on his/her supervisor in the fear of damaging his/her own career or university does not want to investigate into allegations because it might mean losing research funding.

Often when irregularities in research are uncovered the research publications will be retracted. This means that results from the articles are not to be used in other research. Most of the retractions are done due to plagiarism, serious errors in interpretation of research data, fabricated research data or self plagiarism meaning that big part of text for one’s own previously published research is used without citing that work.

Brian Deer uncovered falsifications in a study into the possible connection between vaccination and autism. The so called Wakefield study had falsified number of things in the research. It took twelve years for The Lancet to retract the article. Deer means that researchers should be controlled like sportsmen: unannounced visits to labs to make sure papers and log books and notes are in order.

The Swedish Research Counsil requires a data publishing plan to be attached to an application for research funding. They would like for the research data to be made openly available for others to have the possibility to use the same data for their project and also because openly available research data might increase citations. This demand brings out another question: might there be even other reasons? Could it be that this is a first step making it easier to control research results against research data and expose research misconduct?

There are voices in Sweden asking for a new system to manage suspicions of research misconduct. One of them is Madeleine Leijonhufvud, a professor in criminal law at the Stockholm University, says that the research world in Sweden is so small, everyone knows everyone, that there is a need to call in experts from abroad when cases of misconduct are investigated.

A database where you can search for retracted articles does not exist but Retraction Watch blog writes about retracted articles. There are a some studies made on retracted articles, .e.g. The persistence of error: a study of retracted article on the Internet and in personal libraries and A Comprehensive Survey of Retracted Articles from the Scholarly Literature.  The first one studies articles which have been retracted but are still available online and the second one studied retracted articles from several disciplines, not just within medicine and Life Sciences.

Both of these studies and parts of the research community are demanding ways to educate researches on research ethics but also to discuss more openly retracted literature and also to create better and independent organizations to investigate research misconduct. Maybe we should follow Norway? There you might be sentenced to prison for research misconduct.

First published in Biblioteksbloggen 2013-02-13

By: Pieta Eklund

Short news about research and publishing

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A lot of things has happened in research and publishing world. Here is a short summary of some of them.

All research funders are facing the same challenges such as assessing the quality and potential of research applications they receive. This is one of the reasons why a meeting on the subject was organized. During the Global Summit on Merit Review leaders for research financers from more than 50 countries met to discuss how evaluation according to peer review should be done. They were able to agree on six principles and take the first steps toward a global understanding on assessment of research applications. These principles are on expert assessment, transparency, impartiality, appropriateness, confidentiality and integrity and ethical considerations. Next meeting will be held in Berlin 2013 and the topics then will be open access and research ethics. Read the principles they agreed upon: Statement of Principles for Scientific Merit Review.

In the begining of april representatives from different parts of the university and research world met for a workshop organized by Luleå University of Technology and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond to discuss how to manage research data. They agreed that national policy and guidelines are needed for all universities and other concerned parties. They also agreed on that an infrastructure should be developed for research data. Universities are responsible to archive research data but an accepted model and system for archiving this material is missing. A report was published from the workshop (in Swedish).

Representatives from the University visited Brussels during the spring to learn more about EU Horizon 20/20, an EU project for research and innovation and how the university could receive a part of the €80 billion budget. What is good news is that they support open access (either green or gold) and see it as the standard way of publishing. Neelie Kroes, vice president for EU commission responsible for digital agenda has said in connection to Horizon 20/20: ”First, when research is funded by the EU, we will require open access to the results. Whether by ”green” or ”gold” routes.” Read Neelie Kroes speach here.

At the same time as there is lobbying process going on to lobby White house to work for open access, especially for the research paid by taxpayers a federal court has ruled against the publishers and given Georgia State University right in all but five accounts. The teachers at the University had distributed material under copyright protection electronically to their students. The university means that this case “highlights the importance of fair use in providing academic faculty a cost-effective, legal way to spread important knowledge to their students.” So the use of copyright law varies a lot and the publishers are now saying they “hope that this decision will start us down a path where librarians, teachers, and publishers can work together to chart a course through this evolving landscape.” Chronicle of Higer Education has written about the court’s decision.

First published in Biblioteksbloggen 2012-06-12

By: Pieta Eklund