Graduate Guide to Research

Research data management (or RDM) is a term that describes the organization, storage, preservation, and sharing of data collected and used in a research project. It involves the everyday management of research data during the lifetime of a research project (for example, using consistent file naming conventions). It also involves decisions about how data will be preserved and shared after the project is completed (for example, depositing the data in a repository for long-term archiving and access).

There are a host of reasons why research data management is important:

• Data, like journal articles and books, is a scholarly product.
• Data (especially digital data) is fragile and easily lost.
• There are growing research data requirements imposed by funders and publishers.
• Research data management saves time and resources in the long run.
• Good management helps to prevent errors and increases the quality of your analyses.
• Well-managed and accessible data allows others to validate and replicate findings.
• Research data management facilitates sharing of research data and, when shared, data can lead to valuable discoveries by others outside of the original research team.

Created by Pitt University Library https://pitt.libguides.com/managedata