Research data management (RDM) concerns the organisation of data, from its entry to the research life cycle through the dissemination and archiving of the results. It aims to ensure reliable verification of results, contributes to research transparency and integrity, and permits reuse of data, which in its turn enables new and innovative research built on existing information. As part of the research process, proper RDM aims to make the research process as efficient as possible. RDM involves, among other things, storage of data during your research, protection of sensitive data, and data archiving after your research.
In this training, we will discuss why RDM is necessary and how it can be beneficial to your research. The readings will provide you with practical guidelines and instruments to manage your data properly. In the readings, the FAIR principles (that is, principles to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) are addressed. In addition, we will present which facilities and what kind of support exists at VUmc and VU Amsterdam for RDM. An important tool for RDM concerns a data management plan (DMP), which is a living document in which researchers develop a plan for managing their research data. The aim of this RDM training is that participants write a DMP that is beneficial to their research.
Medical research has a long tradition of setting up Clinial DMPs. Over the past few years, this type of DMP has been extended with a Research DMP. These two types of DMP have been integrated in the VUmc DMP template, as you will see when you go through all the information on this website. All parts of this template are important, but in this training we will focus on the part that concerns the aspects typically associated with a Research DMP (e.g. data description, data storage during research, sharing data with colleagues, data archiving after research and data citation). We will also address the ethical and legal framework, including the General Data Protection Regulation (the European law on privacy).
Please get in touch with rdm@vu.nl in case you have questions.