Data Management

Overview

Resources for researchers required to design a data management plan or who need assistance in data research.

Introduction

This guide is intended to support researchers who want to effectively manage their data. It is equally important for researchers to understand newer requirements from grant funding agencies for managing research data and the research data life-cycle.

The DMP Tool for Boston College is a service built to help BC researchers create a data management plan fitting your needs and based on agency guidelines with customized help and agency-specific templates for Boston College researchers. Click on Go To DMPTool to and select Boston College to begin.

For assistance in writing a data management plan or with data curation, please contact your subject specialist. Or contact the Digital Scholaship team.

Click for information about the Boston College Data Repository Dataverse

Springer Nature Announces Research Data Policy Details

Springer Nature has just announced research data policies for its stable of journals. Here's the information you'll find included on this page:

Research Data Policy Types
Research Data Policies FAQ's
Data Availability Statements
Recommended Repositories List
List of Springer Nature Journals (and the policy types that apply to each)
Springer Nature Research Data Support Helpdesk

Lifecycle of Digital Research Data

While there are many ways of looking at the data life cycle, this particular image emphasizes the repurposing and re-use of data, which is a driving force behind the success of data intensive science and the reason why data management has been deemed so important.

Source: Humphrey, Charles. (2006). “e-Science and the life cycle of research.” Retrieved 23 January 2011 from http://datalib.library.ualberta.ca/~humphrey/lifecycle-science060308.doc

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announce New Open Data Requirement

In early December 2014 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced its new Open Access policy. Beginning January 1, 2015, open access is required for all publications and associated data sets resulting from Foundation funding support. In a two-year transition period, publishers are allowed a 12-month embargo period during Year 1; no embargos will be allowed after January 1, 2017. Here is the relevant text:

Data Underlying Published Research Results Will Be Accessible and Open Immediately. The foundation will require that data underlying the published research results be immediately accessible and open. This too is subject to the transition period and a 12-month embargo may be applied.