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The importance of good data management

JISC’s Research Integrity Conference (13 September 2011) will consider the role of universities in safeguarding research integrity by establishing support infrastructures and will look into the issues facing universities from a strategic and a technical perspective.

Simon Hodson, JISC Managing Research Data programme manager explains, ‘Ensuring research integrity and improving research data management are two closely related challenges facing universities. Research data management considers the need to have policies and processes governing the retention and preservation of data, and the ability, where necessary, to ensure security and to enable the appropriate sharing and publication of data, fundamental to ensuring research integrity.

‘The potential “threat” of FoI requests for research data, on the one hand, and the public benefit of ‘open science’ on the other, it is timely then, that JISC stimulates a debate which associates these issues with those of research integrity and the challenge to improve the way universities support researchers in managing their data.

Hodson raises some general questions which need to be considered, for example, ‘What are the ethical, legal and policy drivers to making data more readily available and what are the limits? Where should responsibility for supporting researchers in responding to these drivers lie?’

The conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the practical actions that universities can take to support best practice.

The conference will be chaired by Professor David Baker, Deputy Chair of JISC with keynote presentations from Professor Kevin Schürer, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at the University of Leicester; Sarah Porter, Head of Innovation at JISC and Professor Dave de Roure, National Strategic Director, Digital Social Research. The conference will conclude with a panel discussion chaired by Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, Principal of Edinburgh University and Chair of JISC.

The morning and afternoon workshops will focus on one of three strands addressing the issues and problems faced by researchers and the universities that employ them, offering advice and guidance as to how these issues can be managed.

The legal and policy obligations to publish research data:

Concerns have been expressed that FoI requests for research data may be used to harass scientists and the increased volume of such requests may impose additional time pressures and effort on researchers. Questions have also been raised as to what extent research that is still in progress should be subject to FoI requests.

By the same token the principle that publicly funded research data is a public good and should be made openly available with as few restrictions as possible, is widely accepted and endorsed by the Research Councils UK ‘Common Principles on (Research) Data Policy’. With growing competition for research funding, universities are under pressure to adhere to these principles as well as the more specific mandates set out by individual research councils. Victoria Cetinkaya, Senior Policy Officer at the Information Commissioner’s Office, and Juan Bicarregui, who chaired the RCUK Group responsible for the Common Principles will lead a discussion of these issues.

In the afternoon session, Kevin Ashley from the JISC-funded Digital Curation Centre will lead a discussion to consider how Universities can respond to these drivers, avoid reputational risk from poor practice, and support researchers in managing data.

Institutional responsibility:

To comply with external regulations and policies, institutions have their own internal structures and codes of conduct to manage data publication and preservation. But what are institutions doing in response to these challenges and what can they learn from situations where things have gone wrong? By analysing these scenarios, and considering what could have been done differently, lessons can be learnt. The UK Research Integrity Office will share their experience and expertise acquired over the past five years. The discussion will be led by Nalin Thakker, Associate Vice-President for Research Integrity at the University of Manchester, responsible for the development of the University research governance framework, best conduct and optimal compliance with regulatory matters.

In the afternoon, the workshop will hear case studies from universities at the forefront of developing institutional policies and infrastructure for research data management as part of a broader agenda to ensure research integrity and to improve support for research. Speakers include, Jeff Haywood, CIO and Vice Principal Knowledge Management, University of Edinburgh; and Paul Jeffreys, Director of IT, University of Oxford.

The integrity of the published record:

This strand will consider the case that the integrity of the scientific record may be maintained and enhanced by openly publishing research data and by linking the assertions made in scholarly articles to the evidence that underpins them. Publishing research data allows reliable verification of results and permits further and new enquiries to be conducted, thus extracting greater value from public investment in research. Discussions will explore what benefits the greater integration of research data with scholarly communications may bring and what barriers may exist to changing practice. If science, and other branches of research, is a public enterprise, to what extent should it be conducted in the open? Again, what protections should exist for research that is still in progress? Where benefits are identified, what role can and should publishers and funders play to ensure that researchers who publish their data are adequately recognised? As many research projects are international in scope, how should researchers and universities deal with the potentially conflicting demands of collaboration agreements and diverse legal and regulatory regimes?
Confirmed speakers include: Professor Iain Buchan, Director NIBHI & NWeH Science, University of Manchester; and Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Journal Publisher, BioMed Central.

Useful resources:

Maintain research integrity through good data management.

Manage your research information and be ready for the research excellence framework.

 

 

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