What is research data management?

Research data management (RDM) refers to the organisation, storage and preservation of data created during a research project.

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About research data management

RDM covers initial planning, day-to-day processes and long-term archiving and sharing. Research data can take many different forms, but is essentially the evidence used to inform or support research conclusions.

Some examples of research data are

  • video and voice recordings
  • questionnaires and interview transcripts
  • test results held in text files and spreadsheets
  • archive materials and handwritten notes
  • code and software
  • photographs and slides
  • laboratory notebooks

There are many potential benefits of good research data management for you, other researchers and the wider community. These include

  • efficiency and ease of data control, with reduced risk of data loss
  • greater visibility of data, leading to increased citations and future collaborations
  • demonstration of research integrity and validation of research results
  • compliance with funder and institutional policies and expectations
  • greater impact of research through knowledge transfer
  • research advances through reuse of data by researchers around the world

Further guidance

You can find out more about the benefits of research data management using the resources below:

Five selfish reasons to work reproducibly (Markowetz (2015) Genome Biol 16, 274)

Benefits of data management (CESSDA)

For further information, contact rdm@sheffield.ac.uk.

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