Why Research Data Management Matters

Researchers engaged in any kind of research inquiry are often interacting with data in some way – discovering, selecting, organising and interpreting – and there is a significant and growing burden of responsibility in ensuring the transparency and trustworthiness of the data that underpins the research process. Research data are valuable assets only insofar as they are properly managed. Well-managed data have the potential to advance research and scholarship while poorly managed data can hamper progress, waste research funding, and, at its worst, cause irreparable harm.

Whether or not all researchers recognise the role that data management plays in their research practice, chances are that they are making curatorial decisions around data collection, analysis, retention and sharing every day in order to meet institutional, funder, disciplinary, and community expectations. Those decisions are influenced by legal and ethical frameworks, publisher requirements, and an enormous variety of potential technologies, tools, and services that can either support or hinder their ability to utilise and share quality research outputs. Good data management planning ensures that decisions are made throughout the research process that support the research goals.

What does good data management do?

• Data management relates all the sources of information to the context and purpose of the research inquiry, while also recording how that context evolves during the research process.
• Data management shows the boundaries of the work (revealing what did and didn’t inform the research inquiry and how the information was understood to describe one thing and not another).
• Data management empowers others to replicate the research or reuse the data in an entirely new way.
• Data management allows others to properly credit both the research process and the conclusions.
• Data management supports the long-term preservation of data.
• Data management produces data that are FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.