Laying the Foundation: Establishing an institutional RDM Support Service for health researchers

Laying the FoundationEstablishing an institutional RDM Support Service

for health researchers

Data Management Planning WorkshopUCL Institute of Child Health

18 July 2012

Gareth Knight & Frieda Midgley

Academic Environment

What is the LSHTM?A university for research and postgraduate education specialising in public health and 

tropical medicineConstituent college of University of London

A small institution12 academic departments in 3 faculties

17 research centre10 research groups

But distributed….Recognised as one of world’s highest rated 

universities for collaborative research4000 students & 1,300 staff working in 100+ 

countries

LSHTM initiative onresearch data (2009-10)

Researcher as (initial) Data ChampionPersonal pride  ‐ want it to be available and used

… Quickly realised time commitment required to support end user

Research Data Working GroupReceived approval to establish a RDWG for institution in Feb 2010Membership comprised of research staff, librarians, archivists, and 

other staff 

Scope of workAdvise institution on RDM and Open Data development

Develop recommendations for next steps

Data Sharing SeminarData Management as enabler for Data Sharing:• Accountability to funders & demonstrate value for money • Enable meta analysis – gain more mileage from data ‘Coolest thing to do 

with your data..’• Esteem factor – Wish to seen to be doing good research by peers

However, too much onus placed upon researcher:• Requires significant amount of work:

• Existing data requires time to organise, clean and document – is this a lost cause?• Uncertainty on type of contextual information required to understand. Consider 

impossible to document for use by layperson 

‘I'll show you mine if you show me yours: Risks and rewards of sharing data’ (Nov 10)

Conclusions:

•Data management & sharing needs to have its rewards, as for publications•Quality monitoring process, linked to incentive structure. Who would do this? •Need to empower people to act locally •Establish Infrastructure to support data handling activities

Scoping Study Recommendations

• Develop policies/guidance for researchers on; – obtaining consent to permit data sharing,– maintenance of confidentiality and minimising risk 

of disclosure of identities, – Inclusion of adequate budget lines for new grants

• Introduce staff, taught course and doctoral training on documentation and meta‐data

• Best practice and minimal standards for data documentation and institutional incentives for its application

• Review career pathways for info specialists;

• Develop portal/gateway for discovery of key data assets;

Recommendations fully accepted by SMT in mid 2011

Research Data Management Support Service

Funding:• Wellcome Trust Infrastructure development fund• 1 year + 2 year continuation

Objectives:1. Establish and embed RDM Support Service within the School2. Champion good Research Data Management practice in the School3. Advise Senior Leadership Team on issues relating to documenting, preserving and providing 

access to research data, including :1. actions required to respond to initiatives taken by funders and others in this area 2. Steps need to be taken to ensure that in the longer term the School continues to 

develop and be at the cutting edge of research data management

4. Monitor related developments and projects at otherinstitutions, funding bodies etc..

Approach:• 3‐year broad plan• Detailed Stage Plan for each six month phase

Data Management Practices Survey

Survey data management knowledge and expertise within institution & establish standards & systems used.

Target audience• Primary Investigators, researchers, department/group leaders• Research Support staff: Data Managers,

Research Office & IT support• and IT support staff 

Methodology draws upon DAF and approaches trialled inother institutions• What type of data do you create & store?• How do you organise and label it?• Where do you store it & how is it used?• How can we help you to better manage your data?

Communication:• Online questionnaire• One‐to‐one interviews• Group interviews

RDM Guidance material• Develop a Research Data Management microsite 

to support LSHTM researchers.• Guidance framed around several lifecycles:

– Funding: Preparation, funded period, post‐project– Data: Contemporary, obsolete format– Record: Active, semi‐active,  Inactive (possibly)

• Several topics covered during lifecycle:– Developing Data Management Plan– Data labelling– Metadata

• Guidance tailored to institutional services, subject domains and health‐related data & metadata formats

• Material produced over several stages of development – work with key departments

RDM training material

• Produce OERs consisting of slides, exercises and notes• Tailored for different audiences:

– Domain independent for library & archives staff– Subject specific for tutor use in 

• Different course types and duration– 1 hour, 2 hour lessons for use in course– 1 day CPD,– 5‐10 week Distance Learning

• ‘Training the Tutors’ programme

Producing teaching material on various topics related to RDM.

Research DataTools and services

Recognise need to develop/implement infrastructure and recommend tools to simplify process of managing & publishing researcher  data

Web-based services:

Research Data Discovery ServiceOnline catalogue of research data assets

Data Management / data archive systemCollection, Item, variable-level access

Access controls for different users

Desktop tools:

Dataset documentation toolsDDI metadata, collection manifests, etc.

Deposit toolsSubmit dataset to different data archives & services

Conclusions• LSHTM currently establishing the foundation of the RDM Support Service, 

but small size allows it to move quickly

• Need to establish buy‐in and ensure that work is represented at different levels:– Institutional management are on‐board– Next step is to convince research departments & groups

• RCUK & EPSRC requirements, along with need to produce DM plans may help• Examine ways to simplify the researcher’s life

• Locating RDM Services within Library & Archives Service has benefits– Department staff familiar with dept through existing arrangement to manage paper 

records– Embedded Information Management skills can be repurposed for research data

• RDM Service should combine central support with localknowledge and expertise provided by data champions

• Open Access is in the media. How can we promote Open Data?

Thank You for your attention!

Gareth Knight.RDMSS Project ManagerEmail: [email protected] | Twitter: gknight2000

http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/rdmss/