RDM Plans
Research Data Management Plans (RDMPs)
A Research Data Management Plan is a document that describes the data that will be collected throughout a project, and how the data will be organized, stored, and shared.
RDMPs provide a framework for managing research data throughout the entire research process, from data collection to data sharing and preservation. RDMPs ensure that data is collected, organized, documented, and stored in a secure and efficient manner, which helps to minimize the risk of data loss, increase data quality, and facilitate data sharing and reuse.
Components
There are five components of any research data management plan:
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Types of data that will be produced or collected
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Data and metadata standards
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Policies for access and sharing
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Policies for re-use and distribution
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Plans for archiving and preservation
FAIR Principles and Ethics
FAIR principles and ethics help to ensure the research is conducted in a responsible and ethical manner. Considering ethics implications in your medical RDMPs will protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants, will ensure informed consent, will promote research integrity, will address potential risks and harms, and will follow medical research regulations and guidelines.
The FAIR principles stand for:
Findability
Accessibility
Interoperability
Reuse of digital assets
Following these principles will help you create and strengthen your data management strategies.
Tips to Create RDMPs
The content of your data will determine the digital parameters
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Create a document that contains your data management practices
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Define formats and types based on your content
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Create a strategy to name your data: unique identifier, no spaces, add date, specific about the content
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Organize your files using folder structure, tagging, etc.
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Create and save different versions of your data (3-2-1 Rule: 3 copies of your data, 2 different types of media, 1 stored off-site)
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Include ethical and intellectual property considerations
When Things Go Wrong with RDM
Tools
Writing a RDMP
The Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) and the University of Alberta have jointly developed the DMP Assistant, an online and bilingual tool that aids researchers in creating data management plans (DMPs). This national tool is accessible to all researchers free of charge and guides users through a set of essential data management questions while also providing best-practice guidance and examples.
Data Deposition
FRDR will address a longstanding gap in Canada's research infrastructure by providing a single platform from which research data can be ingested, curated, preserved, discovered, cited and shared.
Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, is a secure, multidisciplinary Canadian research data repository that is bilingual and supported by academic libraries and research institutions throughout Canada. It facilitates open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data. E.g., University of Toronto Dataverse.
TSpace is a free and secure research repository established by University of Toronto Libraries to disseminate and preserve the scholarly record of the University of Toronto community, including faculty and graduate student research. It is specially focused on final publications such as thesis and publications derived from undergraduate and graduate degree.