How-to Guides

Phase 1: Planning and preparation

Planning ahead - guidance for grant applicants

Knowing funders' policies & expectations; Writing Data Management Plans; Costing data management; Writing grant applications.

Writing Data Management Plans

When do I need a Data Management Plan? Why they are useful; Tools, models and support.

Costing data management

Key questions to estimate costs; Time & budget-anticipating tools; Funding.

Phase 2: Actively researching

Handling sensitive & personal information

Using personal data in research; Ethical approval & registration; Anonymising data; Data protection; NHS data.

Creating & analysing data

Collecting data; Collecting sensitive data; Organising data; Formats; Describing data: metadata & documentation; Analysing data; Improving software.

Choosing your formats

Choosing your formats; Text, images & audiovisual files; Recommended formats; Preservation; Dissemination.

Phase 3: Archiving, preserving and curating

Storing & preserving data

Options for data storage; Information security; Long-term preservation & archiving; Storing sensitive & personal information; Retention & disposal of records.

Software sustainability, preservation and sharing

Why preserve software; How to preserve software; Citing software; Archiving GitHub repositories.

Phase 4: Data discovery, access and sharing

Sharing data

Handling copyright, Intellectual Property Rights & licences issues; Where to deposit data; Constraints to release data; Metadata, documentation & DOIs; Anonymising; Sharing publications; Citing data.

Data discovery & re-use

Finding data for re-use; Finding publications & projects; Citing data; Handling copyright, Intellectual Property Rights & licences issues; Analysing data.