Handling of data

On this page, we provide you with further information on the proper handling of research data. Sustainable data management encompasses topics such as data storage, organization and preparation, licenses, publication, and archiving, as well as project planning.

Project planning

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Organizing and preparing

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Storage

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Licenses

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Publishing and archiving

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Find and reuse

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Project planning

If you are planning a research project, you probably want to include data management in your planning – you may even be obligated to do so by your funding institution.

Keep the following points in mind during the project planning stage

Plan your data management to facilitate the actual research process and document this, for example, in a data management plan. You can use tools like RDMO .
Address legal questions before data collection, especially when collecting personal data.
Research whether you can reuse existing data.
Allocate sufficient and redundant storage space in a research data storage system and, if necessary, resources in a data archive.
Define workflow guidelines for data storage, backup, and exchange.
If you intend to publish your data, research suitable repositories, and consider any additional requirements such as metadata standards, licenses, and data formats.
Consider from the beginning what you want to do with the data after the project ends. Where should the data be stored? Will there be ongoing costs? Who will be responsible for the data?

Contact

If you have questions during the planning and proposal submission of your project, we are always happy to help you.

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Organizing and preparing

Thoroughly planning and structuring the organization and preparation of data may initially seem like an additional effort, but it saves a considerable amount of work throughout the research process.

Here are some fundamental guidelines and tips:

Structure your data: Apply naming conventions for files and directories. Tips on this can be found here.
Document your data: provide metadata and additional information necessary for the reproduction, collaborative usage, reuse, and data archiving. Further information can be found here.
Save your research data on a storage system that ensures data integrity, geo-redundancy, and backup.
Version your data. Tips can be found here.
Consider and integrate requirements for subsequent processes such as publication and archiving during data collection and analysis. Benefit from this by saving time later.

For additional helpful tips on data organization and preparation, visit https://forschungsdaten.info/themen/organisieren-und-aufbereiten (in German).

Contact

Feel free to contact us anytime if you have questions on this topic. We are happy to provide guidance.

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Storage

To ensure the long-term availability of research data, various aspects must be considered during storage.This includes choosing the right storage media, implementing a backup concept, and selecting suitable repositories.

Backup

A backup is designed to restore data in case of data loss and should not be confused with archiving or with long-term storage of research data (link to archiving section). You can adopt a personal backup strategy based on the 3-2-1 rule:

3 copies of the data (including the original)
2 different storage media
1 copy that is stored externally or decentralized

Storage options at RUB

At RUB, we offer various options for storing your data:

Sciebo - the NRW university cloud
You have the option to rent servers through IT.Services.
You can set up network drives using the fileservice
Serverhousing
Separate backup-service backup service

Storage Media

Different storage media have various strengths and weaknesses, such as different lifespans or resistances. You can find a good overview of the advantages and disadvantages of storage media as well as their respective (estimated) lifespans on forschungsdaten.info (German).

Data protection

In addition to performing regular backups, it is crucial to protect data from unauthorized access. One way to achieve this is by using password protection for files and folders. To manage password-protected documents and data, it may be beneficial to use password management software.

IT.SERVICES at RUB offer various access and security services. You can find different options on this page.

Licenses

Legal issues are often rather unpopular in the research process but may arise at various points. In research data management, researchers are often confronted with data protection, copyright, and licensing issues.

General information

Rights and obligations when handling research data Legal framework of RDM (German)
Legal framework of RDM (in German)
FAQ on legal aspects of handling research data at Leibniz University of Hannover and Technical Information Library (German)

Licenses

forschungslizenzen.org: Information on licenses and licensing for research data
creativecommons.org: Overview of CC licenses

Privacy Notice

RUB Data Protection Officer: Information on data protection, GDPR, forms, data protection in research
Further training on data protection in research

Open Science

Legal issues in open science: A guide to copyright, data protection, open data and answers to frequently asked questions. For legal questions, please contact the Legal Department.

Publishing and archiving

Publishing your data makes your research visible, transparent, and reusable. In addition to your article, your data will be citable, too.

Consider which data should be published or archived.
Make your data FAIR.
Use open formats for files.
Use persistent identifiers.
Choose a suitable repository.You can find repositories at www.re3data.org for example.

You can also consider publishing your data as Open Data .

Do you have questions on publishing or archiving? Please feel free to contact us.

Find and reuse

Reusing existing research datacan save work and time. The best place to find published data is in repositories or data centres.

Pay attention to the correct citation while reusing.