What Is Data Management & What Goes In a Plan?: Your Needs

Listed below are a variety of resources available at UNC to help with different needs.  Consider what your project will entail and talk with the respective staff to design a customized data management plan.  Similar services are available from multiple resources, giving researchers a wide variety of flexible data management solutions.

If you don't need to manipulate your data regularly but mainly want a place to store your data when the research is complete, consider an institutional repository like the Carolina Digital Repository (CDR).

Consider using ITS Research Computing if you:

• Need storage solutions for the active research phase of your research

• Need to archive multiple file types

• Need to preserve successive versions of the data

• Have requirements for reproducibility

• Need to give different users different levels of access

• Want to distribute storage over servers in different locations (i.e., how disaster-proof do you want your data to be)

Consult with ITS, the Odum Institute, RENCI, or the DICE Center if:

• You want users to be able to do their own subsetting or analysis online

• You need to provide access to your data to researchers in a remote location while your research is in progress

• You need large capacity or high speed computing capabilities

The Odum Institute offers a simple, self-guided program for organizing some kinds of data in its DataVerse system, free of charge to UNC researchers.

RENCI and the Data Intensive Cyber-Environments (DICE) Center offer highly flexible, custom-programmed storage systems, but require substantial funding resources.

When choosing a repository, make sure you consider:

• Who pays the cost to deposit with a given repository? UNC pays for deposit with ICPSR; the UNC Libraries pays for deposit with the Carolina Digital Repository; and the Odum Institute pays for self-service deposits in the UNC Dataverse.  Sometimes funders or journals will pay, or you the author will need to pay. Costs can vary enormously.

• To what extent do other researchers need to be able to use your data when your research is completed?

• Who would be interested in your data and how does the repository you choose appeal to that audience?

• Does a repository offer help to clean and curate your data?

• What tools does a repository have to make your data findable and usable?

• Can the repository offer sufficient security to protect sensitive data, or services to help you de-identify the data?

• Can the repository manage restricted access on your behalf?

• How long do you need to store your data?

• How stable is the repository in which you want to deposit your data?

• What are its policies for moving your data out of that repository, or what happens if you leave your current institution?

• Do you have questions or concerns about copyrighting data or data that you have licensed or purchased?

• You should consult the Libraries' Scholarly Communications Office about legal matters such as this.

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