Thing 2: Issues in research data management

Research data is critical to solving the big questions of our time. So what are some of the issues we face in managing research data?

  • Getting started: Watch a cartoon about what happens when a researcher hasn't managed their data (at all...) What could possibly go wrong!?
  • Learn more: the 5Vs about Big Data everyone must know
  • Challenge me: what are the issues when data is part of a Lab Notebook?

Getting started

Managing data for reuse

Research data is for everyone. Governments and universities all around Australia and the world are now encouraging researchers to better manage their data so others can reuse it.

Research data might be critical to solving the big questions of our time, but so much data are being lost or poorly managed.

  1. Take just a minute and browse over some ways the Queensland Government Data is being used by businesses, families, travellers, and farmers.

  2. This 4.40min cartoon put together by the New York University Health Sciences Library, is about what happens when a researcher hasn’t managed their data (at all…) What could possibly go wrong!?\ As you watch the cartoon jot down the data management mistakes which interest or appeal you.

  3. Now, scan through the dot points in the Consider the following section of the University of the Sunshine Coast’s LibGuide which provides advice for researchers on how to manage their data.

Consider: how just one of the data disasters depicted in the cartoon could have been avoided.

Learn more

How do you manage “Big Data”?

Data management for Big Data brings much complexity - citing dynamic data, software, high volume compute, storage costs, transfer of petabytes of data, preservation, provenance, and more.

Read this post and presentation: Big Data: The 5 Vs Everyone Must Know. This article uses the 5 Vs: volume, variety, velocity, veracity and value as a concept for how big data can be managed more successfully. The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre located in Perth, Western Australia supports researchers across Australia with an array of capabilities encompassing supercomputing, data and visualisation services. Review case studies of some of the interesting research projects that involve the use of big data undertaken at the centre.

Consider: your views on whether the concept of the 5 Vs is useful to support better management and reuse of Big Data. If you don’t think the 5 Vs is of value, is there another framework or concept model which could be useful for exploring data management for big data?

Challenge me

Digital data in Lab Notebooks

Laboratory Notebooks are used by researchers to formally record their research activities. As research has become increasingly digital and collaborative the utility of traditional hard copy Laboratory Notebooks has been challenged. Not surprisingly then, electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) have emerged as an alternative, and they can be used for more than just lab-based research.

ELNs help researchers manage their data effectively and collaboratively during a project, making it easier to share and publish their data, either during or after the project has ended.

  1. Read this short guide to choosing an ELN
  2. Then read this article International team of scientists open sources search for malaria cure about how an international team of scientists and citizen scientists are using open source ELNs to speed up a cure for malaria. You can see their open ELNs here. Click on Matthew Todd’s ELN to see what is recorded.
  3. Check out Harvard Medical School’s comparative matrix of ELN platforms

Do you have a question? Want to share a resource?

Keep on going to the next thing: Data in the research lifecycle or return to all the things