Research data management: A case study

Research data management:  A case study. Gary Brewerton. Ariadne, 74. October 12, 2015.
Loughborough University faced a number of challenges in meeting the expectations of its research funders, especially in three areas:

• publishing the metadata describing the research data that it holds
• where appropriate providing access to the research data
• preserving the research data for at least ten years since last accessed

They did a survey of their research groups to determine existing data management practices and storage requirements. The data could take a variety of formats and vary dramatically in size. Also, not all the data collected by the researchers would need to be preserved. This made it hard to predict the amount of storage needed. Instead of using the existing institutional repository, at possible archiving and discovery solutions and decided on two:

• Arkivum: a digital archiving service guaranteeing long-term preservation of data deposited
• figshare: a cloud-based research sharing repository

Each of these answered a different need: "Arkivum could provide the storage and preservation required, whilst figshare addressed the light-touch deposit process and discoverability of the research data." Both suppliers were asked to work together to develop a platform to meet all the University’s needs, and a two tier implementation occurred, and faculty reaction to the platform has been very positive to the interface and the deposit workflow.  It "remains to be seen how researchers will engage with the platform in the mid- to long- term, but it is clear that advocacy will need to remain an ongoing process if the platform is going to achieve continued success."

Digital Preservation Matters.