Back to Research Data Curation

When creating a Data Management Plan (DMP) for a grant proposal, always check the specific funding agency or program solicitation for guidelines. Remember that you can use the DMPTool to help develop your plan.

In general, there are six core components to a DMP:

  1. Description of data to be produced or collected, including data standards or formats
  2. Identification of protocols or workflows to help manage data throughout the project
  3. Description of documentation and metadata standards to describe the data
  4. Plan for short-term data storage & backup, including necessary security measures
  5. Plan for sharing data, including legal and ethical issues, intellectual property issues, or access policies and provisions
  6. Plan for data preservation, archiving, and long-term access

 

Share & Archive Data

Making your data openly accessible is not only important for ensuring scientific integrity and promoting open inquiry, but it is also required and highly encouraged by funding agencies and publishers.

For many disciplines, research data are commonly deposited in and shared through a disciplinary repository. Review the Registry of Research Data Repositories to determine whether an appropriate repository is available to you.

Through the Georgia Tech Digital Repository, we are able to support the long-term preservation and sharing of openly accessible research data, but are unable to accommodate any proprietary or otherwise confidential data. Review the GT Library Data Submission Guidelines.Review the GT Library Data Submission Guidelines.

Archiving and preserving your research data involves more than keeping your data files on your lab server. In addition to capturing information about your data, you should consider the following:

The file format in which you keep your data is a primary factor in one's ability to use your data in the future. As technology continually changes, researchers should plan for both hardware and software obsolescence. How will your data be read if the software used to produce them becomes unavailable?

Formats more likely to be accessible in the future are:

  • Non-proprietary
  • Open, documented standards 
  • Commonly used by a research community
  • Standard representations (ASCII, Unicode)
  • Unencrypted
  • Uncompressed (If you need to compress files to conserve space, limit compression to your 3rd backup copy.)

Consider migrating your data into a format with the above characteristics, in addition to keeping a copy in the original software format.

Examples of preferred format choices:

  • PDF/A, not Word
  • ASCII or CSV, not Excel
  • MPEG-4, not Quicktime
  • TIFF or JPEG2000, not GIF or JPG
  • XML or RDF, not RDBMS

All research data collected or generated as part of a government sponsored program should be retained for a minimum of 3 years from the end of the project, in order to comply with potential FOIA requests. If you collect data about humans, animals, or agricultural products, you must retain your data in accordance with the Georgia Board of Regents Records Retention Schedule. The policy specifies the retention periods for many research related records, in addition to certain types of research data, and should be reviewed by everyone involved in a research project. 

  • Type of Research Data
  • Retention Period (data from projects that are not of major significance)
  • Retention Period (data from projects of national or international significance, interest, or controversy)

Animal Care and Use
3 years 
Permanent

Human Subjects
70 years (if there potential long-term effects to human subjects)
Permanent

Agricultural
70 years (if project has potential long-term environmental effects)
Permanent Comments 

Depositing your data in a research data repository will facilitate its discovery and preservation. 

Astronomy

Atmospheric Science

Biology

Chemistry

Earth Science

Earthquake Engineering/Seismology

Nanotechnology

Oceanography

Space Science

Social Sciences

For a more complete list of data repositories, see DataBib, a searchable catalog of research data repositories.

Data that have been created at Georgia Tech or by GT researchers, in any discipline, can be archived in SMARTech, the GT repository created to capture, distribute, and preserve digital products of faculty and researchers. Authors can archive their digital works in a variety of formats, including datasets. For more information on how to deposit data into SMARTech, please review the submission guidelines or Susan Parham our Research Data expert. 

While choosing to deposit your data into a repository is a great decision for preservation and access, not all data repositories are alike. When deciding where to deposit your research data, there are several factors to consider.

  • How is the repository sustained? What is their business model? Is this a recently established repository or has it been around for awhile?
  • Is there evidence of an explicit institutional commitment to preservation?
  • What is the repository's preservation policy or plan?
  • Has the repository worked to ensure compliance with OAIS Reference Model (this may also be referred to as the Trusted Repository Audit & Checklist (TRAC) or ISO 16363)?
  • Who is the audience for the repository

If you have questions about a repository and whether they are a suitable home for your research data, contact them and ask about how they will preserve and disseminate your data. In many cases, the repository will want to know in advance if you plan to archive your data with them, and they will appreciate hearing from you. Additionally, they may be able to help with your data management plan.

 

GT Library Data Submission Guidelines

Datasets or other research outputs from any discipline may be deposited into the Georgia Tech Digital Repository for long-term access and preservation. Data submitted to the repository will be made available at no cost to the depositors or users. In addition, research datasets deposited with the Library can be registered with DataCite and assigned a DOI by request. Because the repository is for completed work, any submitted data should be in their final, publishable form – the repository is not storage or collaborative space for works in progress.

To deposit research data into the repository, complete the following:

  1. Ensure your data are eligible for deposit.
    a. Content within the GT Digital Repository is openly accessible, so sensitive data should not be deposited.
    b. Individual files should not be larger than 4GB (files may be zipped to this size). Multiple 4GB files may be attached to one repository record. For assistance with larger files, contact us at repository@library.gatech.edu
  2. Complete the required README file for your deposit, which will help future users understand and use your work.
  3. Use the repository submission form and either upload your files (including a README file) through the form or provide/request a shareable link, such as via Dropbox.
  4. Designate on the form if you would like to assign a Creative Commons license to your work or if you'd like your dataset registered with DataCite.