Research data management and keeping records
Research data management is good research practice and will help you complete your research efficiently.
Before the start of your research project, you must complete a Data Management Plan in DMPonline.
Training on research data management is available in person and online via My Research Essentials.
You can also send any questions by email to researchdata@manchester.ac.uk.
University support and resources
Support is also available across the University to assist you with research data management.
Planning data collection and handling
Data Management Plans help you plan how you will collect and handle data and are also a requirement of the University for every new research project.
You can find the data management planning tool, guidance on writing data management plans and a data management plan review service on the Research Data Management website.
Data storage
Research Data Storage is available from Research IT services, providing 8TB of replicated storage per project, free at the point of use for funded projects (excluding commercial funders).
Currently, only staff can apply for storage space, so ask your supervisor to apply on your behalf.
Data sharing
Where possible, the University recommends using discipline-specific data repositories to share data and you can find repositories for your subject via Re3data.org and fairsharing.org.
Figshare is The University of Manchester's data repository for researchers without a discipline-specific repository.
Datasets which are deposited in Fighshare are automatically added to Pure. This does not however occur automatically for some other types of outputs, so these should be added manually.
There is guidance about submitting data and a more in depth information available in this document.
Training
There are courses on Research Data Management targeted for each Faculty available via My Research Essentials.
You should ensure that you are familiar with your responsibilities relating to the management and storage of your project data, and consult the University's Good Research Conduct Code for guidance on access to data.
Record keeping and storage
Regardless of the type of project, you are required to keep a systematic and detailed logbook of your experimental work and data.
It is recommended that you write up your work in draft form as you go along. You and your supervisor should meet regularly to discuss your results and opportunities to publish your work. It is your responsibility to ensure that these meetings occur and that your records or lab book are kept up to date.
You must ensure that you save your work on University drives and that data from your project is available to your research group or supervisor, particularly if you leave the programme before completion of the project.
All data must be stored in line with data protection and data security protocols.
If you have specialist data storage requirements, you should speak to the Research IT specialists in IT Services.