There can be issues with managing datasets and how they are dealt with may depend on the discipline. Generally, the following are areas to be aware of: Ownership, Sensitive data/GDPR, File Formats, Versioning, Identifiers, Licensing, Data citation, Security.
In short, the university, the public and the funding body 'own' the data, in the sense that the person paying has the right to say how the data should be managed and disseminated. However, given that most data is fact, there isn't necessarily any ownership, as you can't own a fact. You can have rights over the manifestations, e.g., a curated dataset, but not the data points themselves. The requirements of your institutional and funder policies do not negate your right to citation.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) establishes certain rights for data subjects. These are: the right to be informed, the right to access the data, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, the right to object to the use of the data and rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
You can find a guide to GDPR in the Open Research Environment here.
Get details of, and contact, Data Protection at TU Dublin here.
A unique identifier is crucial to making your data findable and sharable. Certain repositories including Zenodo and TU Dublin’s Arrow can create and attach a DOI (digital object identifier) to your data. This is like a barcode for the dataset and will uniquely identify it. DOIs are essential for interoperability, enabling computer systems to talk to each other. This is an example of a DOI:
Find information in regard to Intellectual Property and research at TU Dublin here.
Please find a guide to data citation here.
TU Dublin uses OneDrive to store and backup data files during the lifetime of a research project, and SharePoint to facilitate collaboration.
For queries and requests in regard to added security and getting set up on SharePoint, please visit Technology Services on the TU Dublin website.
OpenAIRE, in their guide, define 'sensitive data' simply as "data that must be protected against unwanted disclosure".
Sensitive personal data, as outlined on the website of the Data Protection Commission, termed “special categories” under Article 9 of the GDPR, are broken down as follows:
Data of this kind cannot be processed without the explicit, informed consent of the data subject. The subject needs to understand the need for the data, how it will be anonymised, how it will be used and, crucially, receive assurance that the data will only be used for the specific project in hand.
Please see our guide to File Formats for Preservation here.
Versioning simply means managing the different versions of the files that will be created in the course of your research. The key here is consistency to save yourself time and frustration.
“When it comes to file organization: develop conventions, record the conventions, and stick to those conventions.” (Simmons University Library: find tips and resources in their LibGuide.)
For tips and guides, please jump to Tidy Data on this page.
Facts and data are not protected by Copyright law, but metadata and data arrangements sometimes are. For example, if the data is part of a database package, it will be protected under the copyright of the creator of the database. So do not rely on copyright, but make sure the data has a licence attached to it.
A licence stipulates the conditions under which the data can be used and reused. It is preferable to use an open access license as it facilitates discovery and sharing. Creative Commons has a set of licences that can be used.
The main licences are:
This licence lets others use, reuse and build on your work even for commercial purposes. All new works based on your work will have this licence. This is the most open of the Digital Common licences.
This licence lets others remix, tweak and build on your work non-commercially. Others must attribute the creator and be non-commercial. However, they do not have to licence derivative works as non-commercial.
This is the most restrictive licence, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as the credit the creator, but the work cannot be changed in any way or used in a commercial way.
This licence lets others remix, tweak and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they do not have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licences, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
A CCO licence puts material into the public domain, which means the creator waives all rights to the data.
There is a search tool on the Creative commons site that will help you to decide on the appropriate licence.
TOOLS to consider later
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
