Research Data Management at UF: Home

See guide tabs for additional information on these data management topics:

• Data Management Planning
• Data Collection
• Metadata & Standards
• Storage
• Security
• Sharing & Copyright
• Tools

Trainings are free and open to UF all faculty, students and staff. Learn practical strategies for best managing your research data. This workshop includes questions to consider when creating a data management plan, with a focus on the DMPTool and tools for sharing your data at the University of Florida. Topics include metadata and annotation, file formats and organization, storage, backups and security, and data sharing. Contact me or your liaison librarian/subject specialist for small group or departmental presentations.

Your data partners:

• George A. Smathers Libraries
• Office of Research
• Research Computing

Other data-related resources on campus:

• UF Informatics Institute
• Institutional Repository (IR@UF)
• Integrated Data Repository
• Division of Sponsored Programs
• Office of Technology Licensing
• Office of Information Security
• UF Privacy Office
• UF Intellectual Property Policy
• Clinical & Translational Science Information Technology (CTS-IT)
• REDCap

UF Research Computing provides training on use of its resources.

UF Informatics Institute hosts a wide variety of talks as well as an Annual Symposium, covering big data and more.  See their schedule.

"Research data is defined as the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings" (OMB, Circular A-110)

What constitutes “data” covered by a Data Management Plan? 

• "What constitutes such data will be determined by the community of interest through the process of peer review and program management. This may include, but is not limited to: data, publications, samples, physical collections, software and models" (NSF, Data Management & Sharing Frequently Asked Questions, 2010)
• "Recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to document and support research findings. This does not mean summary statistics or tables; rather, it means the data on which summary statistics and tables are based. For the purposes of this policy, final research data do not include laboratory notebooks, partial datasets, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer review reports, communications with colleagues, or physical objects, such as gels or laboratory specimens" (NIH, Data Sharing Policy and Implementation Guidance, 2003)

Looking for more data-related definitions?

Check out the Data Thesaurus from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

Some of the benefits of proper data management are:

• Confirmation of published research claims, peer-review, and validation of data
• Reuse and repurpose of data (e.g. reanalyses and meta-analyses) beyond the primary objective of the data collector
• Increase the discoverability of research, citations and new collaborations (research impact)
  
• Avoids redundant data collection
• Preservation and protection of data
• Efficient use of research funding
• Increase public trust in science
• Data available for educational purposes
• Research excellence and advancing of science

Modified from Beagrie et al. (2009) Keeping Research Data Safe 2

from NYU Health Sciences Libraries, "a mini series showing a data management horror story."