Data terminology
We are listing here some data management key concepts and some of the terms that occurs frequently when looking at managing or publishing your data.
Key concepts
FAIR -
FAIR |
The FAIR Data Principles:
|
File Management |
methods for storing, organising, naming, discovering and retrieving files in a structured consistent manner.Good systems mean more efficient and effective data retrieval. |
Data Storage |
The location and/or system you use to store your data during a research project. This could include on personal computers, on external storage devices such as hard drives or SD cards, and/or networked drives managed by your University or partner institution. |
Data Back Up |
The process of saving your data to protect against data loss. This can be an automatic process, where the storage location automatically retains previous versions of your data, or a manual process, where you need to actively save the data in another location. |
Data Archiving or Preservation |
The process of putting your data in long term storage following the completion of a project or publication for a minimum of 5 years. This includes identifying who can access the data and how it can be accessed. Many Institutions have Repositories which can be used by staff and students. |
Data Sharing |
Making your data available for use by other researchers for their own research projects. This requires quality metadata to determine data source and changes made to allow for reuse, and allocation of a persistent identifier (such as DOI). |
Data Provenance |
Data provenance describes the journey a data goes through. It documents the evolution of a dataset from the original source including all the processes and methodology by which it was produced. |
Data Management Plan (DMP) |
Tool to help you manage the data for a specific research project. It can takes different forms depending on the stage of your project, for example a DMP to submit with a grant application will be different from the DMP required to publish your data. A DMP evolves with your project and it is useful to record your data provenance |