DATA MANAGEMENT for SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

a course for writing-up students

[OUTLINE]

1. DIGITAL CURATION AND PRESERVATION – SOME PRINCIPLES AND TIPSi. General principles

ii. Sharingiii. Digital Repositories

iv. e-theses and publication

2. ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUESi. Risks and issues in data

disseminationii. Some tips and techniques to

make data saferiii. Data Protection Act 1998

iv. Freedom of Information Act 2000

v. Intellectual Property and copyright

3. FUNDING, DATA MANAGEMENT AND SHARING

N.B. - THIS IS A PARTICIPATORY

EXERCISE!

1

INTRODUCTIONS

LIFE CYCLES: the researcher’s

and the data’s

GOVERNANCE:sharing and data

management plans

re-use:

some examples

PUBLISHING YOUR

MONOGRAPH

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS

igeneralprinciples:

•types of data

•file formats, naming, structure

•storage•documentation

PLAN IN ADVANCE!

http://www.data-

archive.ac.uk/create-manage/format/formats-

table

ii

sharing

discussion

WITH: - your supervisor

- peers - other academics

- research participants

- wider audiences

agree on rules and conventions on mode of sharing and file naming

USEFUL TOOLS:

- institutional networked storage

-virtual learning/research environments

- Dropbox- GoogleDocs

- Google+- academic web networks

- blogs- wikis

-project websites-CDs/DVDs

-attachments-digital repositories

iiidigital

repositories:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/

http://www.datacite.org/

repolist

http://

oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/

Data_repositories

http://www.opendoar.org/

ive-theses

andpublication

PROS:• Making findings available

to all• Raising profile amongst

research community• Long-term archiving

CONS:•Publication plans for the

thesis•sensitive data

•copyrighted material

2

law & ethics

http://openanthropology.files.wordpress.com/

2010/11/archive.jpg

RISKS of DISSEMINA

TION:-online storage- sharing and

consent-crossing borders

http://www.thea

sa.org/ethics/

guidelines

.shtml

TIPS

[multiple copies]

[restrict access]

[log out]

[firewalls & anti-virus]

[destroy data if necessary]

[encryption]

[tiered consent]

[anonymisation]

DATA PROTECTION

ACT 1998

- data may only be used for the purposes it was collected for

- data must not be disclosed to other parties without consent- individuals have a right of access to information held

about them- personal information may be

kept for no longer than is necessary,

and may not be sent outside the EEA

FREEDOM of

INFORMATION ACT 2000

-gives right to request access to recorded information (such as research data) held by public sector organisations; or be

informed whether information is held

-exceptions: personal data, data accessible by other means, meant

for publication or subject to confidentiality agreement

iNTELLECTUAL pROPERTY

copyright=

•creative works fixed in material form

•depends on academic status/institution/employment

position•right to control copying, adaptation, publishing,

performance, broadcast of the work, and their conditions

•exceptions for personal use and teaching

•limited time duration

SHARING & PUBL]SHING:

ethics, politics,

analyitics – your views

3

DATA POLICIES:

data management plans and sharing

[RCUK][ESRC]

[WELLCOME TRUST][NSF]

[WENNER GREN][other?]

http://dmponline.dcc.ac.

uk/

http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/DMP_FR.pdf

http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/media/257647/ukda_jisc

dmcosting.pdf

ESRC DMP:

•assessment of existing data

•information on new data•quality assurance of data•back-up and security of

data•expected difficulties in

data sharing•copyright/intellectual

property rights•responsibilities

•preparation of data for sharing and archiving

http://www.esds.ac.uk/create/esrc/dataman/

yourturn

SOME GENERAL POINTS:

-Think about the ‘data life cycle’

-Questions to be answered in a data management plan:

What types of data will I produce?From what sources?

How will I organise the data? (file structure/naming, formats, software)

At what points and how will the data be evaluated?

What data will be deposited and where?Who will be interested in re-using the

data?What will the costs of managing data

be?

"[a] half-dozen monkeys provided with typewriters would, in a few eternities, produce all the books in the British Museum" (Borges, The Total Library)