Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice - Softcover

Louise Corti is an Associate Director at the UK Data Archive and is Service Director of Collections Development and Data Publishing, overseeing the acquisition and ingest of high quality data of interest to social scientists. Her research activities are focused around standards and technologies for reviewing, curating and presenting digital social science data, particularly using open source infrastructures and tools.

She has led research awards and regularly publishes, edits and advises internationally on a wide range of issues relating to the archiving, sharing and reuse of data. In the 90s, Louise helped establish Qualidata, the world first national qualitative data archive, pioneering approaches for and solutions to qualitative data archiving. She has taught sociology, social research methods and statistics, and spent six years working on the design, implementation and analysis of the British Household Panel Study at Essex.

Veerle Van den Eynden manages the Research Data Management team for the UK Data Service. This team provides expertise, guidance and training on data management and data sharing to researchers, to promote good data practices and optimise data sharing. She combines this with a position as Research Data Manager for the Global Challenges project Drugs and (Dis)order at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Veerle has many years of experience researching interactions between people, plants and the environment, using a combination of social and natural science methods, and has experienced first-hand the benefits that data sharing brings to research.

Libby Bishop is the Coordinator for International Data Infrastructures in the Data Archive at GESIS-Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences. She manages connections between GESIS and international data infrastructures, such as the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). She is leading a task in the Social Sciences and Humanities Open Science Cloud (SSHOC) project on remote access to sensitive data. She publishes on the methodological and ethical issues of sharing and reusing data.

Matthew Woollard is Director of the UK Data Archive and the UK Data Service. He has practical and theoretical experience in all aspects of data service infrastructure, providing leadership in data curation, archiving and preservation activities. From 2002–2006 he was the Head of the History Data Service and from 2006–2010 an Associate Director and Head of Digital Preservation and Systems at the UK Data Archive. He currently provides leadership and strategic direction of the both the UK Data Archive and the ESRC-funded UK Data Service.

Data are a major asset of economic and social research - the basis for research and also the ultimate product of research. Research data quality and provenance then become paramount in underpinning subsequent sharing and secondary scientific use. As the UK′s largest funder of research on economic and social issues, the ESRC has been at the forefront of promoting the culture of sharing the results and data of the research it funds. The ESRC considers that effective data management is an essential precondition for generating high quality reusable data. Researchers need to be armed with the knowledge and skills to ensure that the data they create and manage can be exploited to the maximum potential for further research. This book offers these skills in an approachable way.

This is a timely, comprehensive and really useful guide to good practice in the management and sharing of research data. It outlines the processes and practices needed to ensure the highest standards of data management and addresses the potential pitfalls of poor practice – from the importance of early planning, to the issues of confidentiality and consent, rights and permissions, and citation.  Its great strength is the way it combines clear ‘how to’ case studies and checklists for action, with the rationale for action on each topic, addressing potential concerns and pitfalls. It should be required reading at the beginning - and end - of all research projects.

The breadth and depth of the cumulative expertise of the authors is evident throughout the sections of Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice that systematically highlight and address key trends and topics in research data management. The text is full of a rich combination of detailed examples, diagrams, exercises, and extensive references. As a result, the Guide simultaneously provides a practical handbook for getting on with research data management now, an instructional text for students and practitioners, a well-documented record of current practice that adds a valuable reference work to the literature of the community, and a roadmap for near-term and longer-term planning. 

At the heart of good research lies good data management practice. Corti and her co-authors give us a vivid and comprehensive account of the ins-and-outs of this vital professional skill, from managing and sharing data, understanding the data lifecycle and realistically costing data management, through documenting and organising data, to securing, preserving and reusing data while honouring ethical accountability and intellectual property considerations. Whether beginner or experienced professor, every researcher will find helpful up-to-data advice in the pages of Managing and Sharing Research Data, whose message is all the more important for hitherto receiving too little attention in the research curriculum. Coverage is extended by thought-provoking practical exercises, exemplars, case studies and a well-specified companion website. This book is a much-needed resource that will serve the field well. 

Corti et al have produced a great introductory text for researchers, librarians, and anyone involved in supporting the creation or reuse of research data. The team has extensive experience in issues surrounding the care and curation of a range of data, and put that experience to good effect in producing this guide.

The book offers concise chapters that cover essential information on research data management activities at all stages of the data lifecycle, and is suitable for quantitative and qualitative researchers either creating or reusing data. Chapters are supported by useful examples, case study illustrations, and reinforced by quizzes and exercises to get researchers and support services thinking about and implementing good data management practices.