Research Data Management Plan

Description of the project & administrative information that is essential for the management of the data

• Project title - descriptive title of your project
• The aim/purpose of the research - outline the purpose of the project
• Chief Investigator
• Researchers/other project members
• Main contact details
• Details of partner/collaborator institutions
• Details of funding source(s) and requirements
• Budget
• Duration of the project/data collection
• Related policies to be followed or applied to the project and data eg institutional policies etc

Provides a description of the data your project will capture, create or use. It is important to record this detail to help you and subsequent users understand why and how the data was created.

• How will data be created (captured)? e.g. interview data, questionnaires, imaging, experimental measurements, instruments etc.
• What data formats will be used? e.g. file formats such as Excel, Word, open source etc.
  • Consider choice of data formats such as: will the data formats meet certain specifications including international or national standards, widely used, is it accepted as best practice in this discipline.
• Will there be special hardware or software requirements for this data?
• Will existing data be used? If so, what is the relationship between existing and created data?
• How will metadata be captured, created or managed? Will there be a data dictionary or controlled vocabularies?
• Will scripts be recorded for every stage of data processing? How is it managed?
• Can all team members consistently follow the workflows, file and folder organization and vocabularies used?

Provides a description of any relevant policies or issues surrounding your data. It is important to ensure that you comply with any regulatory requirements for the ethical conduct of your research, and that intellectual property and privacy rights for the data are recorded.

• Funding body requirements, UQ guidelines and policies
• Are there any issues relating to animal or human subjects? Consent?
• Have you met obligations under the Code for Responsible Conduct of Research?
• Have you met obligations under the Queensland Privacy Act 2009?
• Intellectual property rights e.g. is the dataset covered by copyright? Are there licensing or ownership issues?
• What agreements are in place with research partners (academic, commercial)?
• Do any licenses apply to your data/third party data?

Provides plans for the storage and management of your data. It is important for the security and preservation of your data. We encourage you to use the UQ Research Data Manager for storing all research data.

• Estimated size of data
• File naming convention
• Storage – where and what media?
• Are the raw data stored where they will not be modified or deleted?
• Who will be responsible?
• Back-ups – how regularly will they be done, number of copies, where stored
• Who will be responsible?
• Security – how will data security be guaranteed e.g. data encryption, password etc.
• How will you protect your hardware and software systems?
• What access controls are in place?
• How will the data be shared during the project?
• Outline how you will manage versions of your datasets
• How will you manage and protect sensitive data?

Provides a description of any relevant policies or issues surrounding your data. It is important to ensure that you comply with any regulatory requirements for the ethical conduct of your research, and that intellectual property and privacy rights for the data are recorded.

• How long will the data be kept?
• Where will I store the data? Eg archive, UQRDM, data repository, data centre etc
• Who will manage the long term data?
• What is needed to prepare the data for preservation or data sharing?
• What related information or documentation will be deposited and preserved with the data?
• Who will be responsible for metadata creation and documentation?
• Which metadata standards will you use?

Provides a plan for how you will allow access to your data, or share your data if appropriate.

• Who else might be interested in the data?
• Are there any reasons why data cannot be shared?
• Are there funding obligations to make data available?
• How and when will data be shared?
• Which data repository will your data be stored in?
• Are there potential restrictions, for example, charging for access?
• Will there be embargo periods?
• Will there be right-of-first-use for the data collector, creator, chief investigator?
• Will you provide a citation and license information for potential users?