Research Data Management

RDM Cycle

Research data management

Research data are (digital) data that are generated during a scientific activity (e.g. through measurements, surveys or sourcework) and/or on the basis of which one can conduct academic research (e.g. digitised documents). Depending on the discipline, different types of research data are generated and used: Interview transcripts, climate models, gene sequences, digitised manuscripts et cetera. This imposes different requirements on the preparation, processing and management of the data.

Research data management refers to all activities and decisions during the lifecycle of research data, ranging from the planning phase to the re-use of the data. Research data management is an indispensable part of the research process. Good data management facilitates the research process, increases the visibility and re-usability of research data, and thus contributes to the integrity and transparency of research. With good data management, the costs for the required infrastructure can be budgeted and legal issues clarified already during the project planning phase. In the long run, research data management can save time and resources and increase the efficiency of research, because it avoids unnecessary duplication of data and additional work.

The organisation, reusability and storage of research data is becoming increasingly important in the planning of research projects in all scientific disciplines. Not the least because research funders such as the SNSF promote and demand good research data management and open research data as part of their open science strategies.

Research data management at the University of Basel

Various units within the university offer researchers services in the area of research data management. The different service providers work closely together as a network to provide researchers with efficient and best possible support. The University Library and sciCORE coordinate the network on behalf of the Vice President's Office for Research.

This research data management network has been set up at the University of Basel since 2017 as part of a project and was consolidated by a decision of the Rectorate in September 2020. In the same decision, the rectorate adopted a paper on the principles of research data management and a two-year programme financed by the university to establish a data stewardship programme. The data stewards have been expanding the network since 2021. They serve as subject-specific first points of contact for researchers on all questions related to research data management.

On the website researchdata.unibas.ch you will find extensive information on the various aspects of research data management and all contact details of the relevant service units at the university. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact researchdata@clutterunibas.ch.

 

Services of the research data management network are in particular:

  • DMP consultations and reviews (in cooperation with the data stewards)
  • Information events and workshops
  • Individual advice sessions
  • Clarification of questions concerning data management

News

Employment in Open Science

80% employment in Open Sciene at University of Basel, starting now. Information may be found here.

Basics on Data Protection Law

Upcoming in November (29th) and December (6th), the RDM team offers a course on data protection law: https://researchdata.unibas.ch/en/event/details/basics-on-data-protection-law-and-recent-law-revisions-part-1/.

Upcoming Trainings

The Research Data Management Network offers some trainings and workshops as well.