A PDF version of the policy is available to download.
The benefits of opening up research data for scrutiny and reuse are potentially very significant; including economic growth, increased resource efficiency, securing public support for research funding and increasing public trust in research. However, openness requires more than disclosure of data. All those engaged with research have a responsibility to ensure that the data they gather and generate is properly managed, accessible, intelligible, and usable by others unless there are legitimate reasons to the contrary..[2]
[1] RCUK, Common Principles on Research Data Management (April 2011; rev. July 2015): https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/data-policy/common-principles-on-data-policy/
[2] RCUK, Concordat on Open Research Data (July 2016): https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/data-policy/
Manchester Metropolitan University has a clear strategy to develop the research environment and ensure research excellence. This policy demonstrates the University’s commitment to adhering to and promoting research data management best practice throughout the research lifecycle and is in accordance with the Concordat on Open Research Data and its principles. This policy outlines the responsibilities of both the University and its researchers in relation to research data management and sets out the support and guidance that is available.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) defines research data as 'the evidence that underpins the answer to the research question, and can be used to validate findings regardless of its form (e.g. print, digital or physical).
These might be quantitative information or qualitative statements collected by researchers in the course of their work by experimentation, observation, modelling, interview or other methods, or information derived from existing evidence. Data may be raw or primary (e.g. direct from measurement or collection) or derived from primary data for subsequent analysis or interpretation (e.g. cleaned up or as an extract from a larger data set), or derived from existing sources where the rights may be held by others.
Data may be defined as 'relational' or 'functional' components of research, thus signalling that their identification lies in whether and how researchers use them as evidence for claims.
They may include, for example, statistics, collections of digital images, sound recordings, transcripts of interviews, survey data and fieldwork observations with appropriate annotations, an interpretation, an artwork, archives, found objects, published texts or a manuscript..’[1]
Manchester Metropolitan University recognises three main states for research data:
Active research data (e.g. live digital project data in the research data storage platform)
Archived research data (e.g. ‘finished’ / ‘end of project’ data prepared for long-term preservation. This may contain sensitive personal information. This is archived for legal, regulatory or contractual purposes and is not publicly accessible.
Reusable research data (e.g. a dataset that has been made findable, sharable and available for reuse through the most appropriate repository / data archive. This is subject to ethical, legal and contractual requirements)For the purposes of this policy ‘research data’ refers to active, archived or reusable data, that is created, collected, generated, processed or destroyed by any researcher at the University.
[1] UKRI, Concordat on Open Research Data (2016) https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/data-policy/
Data Management Plans (DMPs)A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal statement describing how data will be managed and documented throughout a research project. A DMP should address the capture, handling, integrity, confidentiality, preservation, sharing, publication and destruction of the research data. DMPs are living documents and therefore should be periodically reviewed and updated to ensure their effectiveness. Manchester Metropolitan University expects all research data to have an associated and proportionate DMP.
Metadata are defined as information that provides information about other data. In the context of research data management this concerns any descriptive or contextual information related to research data that contributes towards its discoverability and long-term preservation.Metadata can range from simple explanatory text documents to extensive structured metadata schemas.