This is a draft document for review and feedback by the ACEP management team. Nothing here as been formalized or adopted. We encourage a close review and feedback on how to improve content and presentation.

This document provided more detailed guidance related associated with the ACEP data management policy. Help us improve this. If you have questions or see an area that can be improved please let us know on the data management issue tracker.

1. Scope

This policy applies to all research conducted at ACEP regardless of whether or not the research is externally funded. It includes research undertaken by postgraduate, graduate, and undergraduate participants except in exceptional circumstances.

1.1 Research data definition

Research data is any material created or collected for the purposes of analysis to generate original research results, irrespective of the format of data. Research data may be digital, paper based or in other forms.

1.2 Full participation

ACEP wants to ensure all levels of students engaged in ACEP research learn how to effectively and properly handle research data in accordance with this policy and as such we encourage researchers to engage with student researchers at all levels involved in the development of research data to ensure they are following appropriate data management practices.

1.3 Flexibility of scope

The will be some data collection efforts at ACEP that this policy might not be applicable to. If you identify a data collection effort that does not make sense to apply this policy to contact the ACEP data management lead and get clarification. Datasets may be added to the ACEP data inventory that are not fully covered by all aspects of this policy. In those instances a short description provided to ACEP data managers describing the reasons for the exception to the policy would be recommended.

1.4 Contract Research

This policy may not apply to contract research carried out by ACEP for consultancy services conducted outside the University. Contact ACEP leadership if you believe you are working on a project that needs different data management policy applied to it due to the nature of the contract.

  • Example: ACEP intern embedded with industry partner will need to adopt and use the industry partners data management policies.

2. Ownership

The most senior ACEP researcher associated with a research project is the Data Steward for that project and is ultimately responsible for research data management.

2.1 Data Steward

The most senior research associated with a project is typically the Principal Investigator or Supervisor and will by default be the Data Steward.

2.2 Delegation

The data steward can delegate responsibilities and this should be outlined in the research data management plan.

2.3 Shared Responsibilities

In practice, day-to-day management of research data is likely to be a shared responsibility with all researchers having a personal responsibility for the data they create or use.

2.4 Transfer of ownership

If a Data Steward leaves ACEP they must first discuss management and retention of research data with the ACEP leadership.

2.5 External collaboration

Where research is conducted in collaboration with external research partners, a Data Steward at ACEP must still be assigned. In situations where there are multiple co-Investigators at ACEP, a single Data Steward must be assigned from amongst them. This Data Steward is responsible for management of research data that is under ACEP’s control.

3. Obligations and Restrictions

Researchers are responsible for making themselves familiar with and adhering to legislation, contractual obligations, and funder policies governing research data. Where research involves the use of restricted data, researchers must abide by licenses or terms of use governing the data.

Restricted data: ACEP projects may interact with or generate datasets with restrictions from government or private partner entities. These restrictions may come from Intellectual Property Protection: proprietary data, business sensitive, confidential, or copyright data; or from National Security rules covering classified or controlled datasets.

3.1 Supersedence

Where multiple policies apply to a particular research project, legislative requirements supersede all other policies.

3.2 Compliance

New projects and contractual agreements should comply with the funder and ACEP policies on research data.

3.3 Seek advice

Researchers should seek advice on data management policy and legislation from ACEP leadership, UAF Research, UAF Office of Grants and Contracts, and UAF Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization as appropriate.

4. Planning

Data management plans are expected to be written for all new research projects, irrespective of whether submission of such plans is required when applying for research funding. Plans should address and attempt to recover the direct costs of managing research data from the funder where possible.

4.1 Creation prior to submission

Data management plans must normally be created before a project starts and, if applicable, prior to submission of a funding application, to ensure that costs and collaborator requirements are considered and included in the project budget or contracts as appropriate.

4.2 Detailed coverage

Data management plans must explicitly address data creation, management, confidentiality, retention, publication and responsibilities.

4.3 Abiding by the plan

All members of a research group must be aware of and abide by the data management plans covering their research.

4.4 Current or unfunded project plans

Current or unfunded research projects that were not required to submit a data management plan as a condition of funding may be required to provide a plan as part of the ACEP organizational data management efforts.

5. Collection

Collect or create information in a way that supports interoperability and information accessibility for downstream information processing, archiving and dissemination activities. Use machine-readable and open formats where possible with recognized data standards appropriate for data types.

5.1 Minimize proprietary dependencies

Avoid creating and storing data in formats that are only accessible with the use of a license restricted or proprietary toolset.

5.2 Toolset management

Document the tools and applications developed to manage the data. This includes the ad-hoc tools and scripts developed needed to transform collected data for processing and analysis.

6. Storing

Researchers must ensure that active research data are stored securely and protected from loss on one of the approved ACEP storage platforms. Data Stewards should ensure that access is not limited to a single person.

6.1 Backups

To minimize the risk of data loss, digital material must be secured through use of electronic back-up systems and, where possible, non-digital material should be digitized at the earliest possible opportunity.

  • Review all data storage locations of data for the full data life cycle
  • Backup your Google Drive.

6.2 Jurisdiction

If you have a restricted dataset, review any requirements for storage and transmission that may limit storage locations or distribution pathways of the data that may not be allowed. Ensure you are not violating legal or contractual requirements for the dataset, such as crossing international boundaries or other jurisdictions, that may violate your legal obligations for the dataset.

6.3 External security requirements

Be aware of and follow any external security requirements that demand more stringent access restrictions as a condition of using a dataset. Contact an ACEP data manager to assist in developing a storage plan that meets the restricted dataset’s requirements.

6.4 Field storage

In circumstances where institutional storage is not available (e.g. when working in the field), researchers must take steps to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the data and ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access or loss.

7. Describing

Researchers must provide sufficient metadata (descriptive information) and explanatory documentation about their research data to ensure that data are discoverable, understandable, and re-usable. This metadata should be linked to and managed alongside the data.

7.1 Document early

Document and describe information must be recorded as early as possible after data creation.

7.2 Metadata

Appropriate metadata standards or minimal information sets should be used where applicable.
TODO: expand based on guidance from management team & data leads at ACEP

7.3 Descriptive for usability

Descriptive information should enable other researchers to understand the research data sufficiently to be able to re-use it for any reasonably foreseeable purpose, such as those outlined in the original project proposal or impact plan.

7.4 Interoperable data

Endeavour to adopt metadata and file standards that allows for platform agnostic interoperability.
TODO: expand with ideas like frictionless data or other such goals here.

8. Distributing

A statement describing how and on what terms any supporting research data may be accessed must, if appropriate, be included in publications reporting publicly-funded research, and is recommended for publications reporting other research. To the fullest extent possible, data associated with a publication should be available for download and discovery at, or before, the time of publication.

8.1 Digital Object Identifier

Where available a persistent identifier, such as a Digital Object Identifier(DOI), for a dataset must be included with this statement.

8.2 Access statements

Guidance on data access statements, including examples for different types of access restriction, are available on the data management website. #TODO

8.2 Access restrictions

Guidance on data access statements, including examples for different types of access restriction, are available on the data management website #TODO. Ensure these access restrictions align and make sense for the selected Licensing of the dataset.

9. Archiving

Research data that substantiates research findings, are of potential long-term value, or support a patent application must be retained after project completion, in alignment with university policy, in an archive for a minimum of 5 years after publication. Researchers should endeavor to ensure their research data in archived on a platform that will ensure long term access to their research data well beyond the minimum of 5 years of availability.

As per ACEP data management retention policy (#10) the ACEP data management team endeavors to ensure all data generated and archived by ACEP researchers are retained and made available for as long as possible, well beyond the minimum retention time of 5 years.

TODO: Select archive platforms that allow us to meet this requirement with minimal effort and costs to the researcher and data management team.

9.1 Published research data

All data on which published research findings are based must normally be retained. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Research Integrity Data Management Guidance sets this minimum for sponsored research.

“All data collected as part of sponsored research must be archived for a minimum of 5 years after publication and/or final report submission. We recommend that all other research use this as a minimum standard for data retention.” - UAF Specific Information

9.2 Student data retention

Supervisors of students must agree retention of their student’s research data prior to graduation. Data retention must complain with any applicable studentship agreements, funder policies, and contractual, legal or other obligations.

9.3 Data with long-term value

Data with long-term value might include unique, unrepeatable measurements, new data contributing to an existing collection, or data representing a landmark discovery or precedents.

Legal requirements for data retention might include financial or contractual obligations. Data may also have long term value if there are legal or legislative requirements covering them, the data may be used in litigation, public inquieries, investigations, or any paper or report that could be legally challenged.

9.4 Seek guidance

Researchers should seek further guidance on determining which data should be retained from ACEP data management team if they have questions.

10. Registering

All data that are retained should be registered with the ACEP data inventory, whether they are hosted by the University or maintained elsewhere, even if access to the data is restricted.

#TODO - ACEP will have invested in the creation and maintenance of an internal data inventory database.

10.1 Register with data manager

Registration involves providing the ACEP data manager with information about retained data, including what the data are, who created and is responsible for them and where the data are stored.

10.2 Register early

Data should be registered as soon as possible from the start of the project initiating the data creation. Archived or retained should, at a minimum, be registered at the time of publication of findings based on the data, or the end of the project, whichever is the sooner.

11. Retaining

Research data that have been selected for retention must be made openly available with as few restrictions as possible, unless this would breach legislative, regulatory, contractual, ethical or other obligations, or where the cost of doing so would be prohibitive.

11.1 Long-term preservation

Where possible, or if mandated by the funder or publisher, retaining data must be submitted to an appropriate archive for database for long-term preservation. Researchers should avoid retaining data using methods that might not persist for 10 years, such as use of project websites or personal computing equipment.

11.2 External archives

Where data has been submitted to an external archive for preservation, that archive will be responsible for managing long-term data retention. See the TODO archiving platforms for ACEP data management team recommendations and guidance.

12. Licensing

Research data that are made available should not be assigned licenses or terms of use that unnecessarily restrict their management, sharing or use by others.

“When you make a creative work (which includes code), the work is under exclusive copyright by default. Unless you include a license that specifies otherwise, nobody else can use, copy, distribute, or modify your work without being at risk of take-downs, shake-downs, or litigation. Once the work has other contributors (each a copyright holder), “nobody” starts including you.” - choosealicense no permission

12.1 Open Licensing if possible

Select an open license if your dataset has no restrictions that prevent that. You can openly license a dataset and still embargo the dataset if that is a project requirement.

12.2 Get help

If you are unsure how Connect with an ACEP data manager and they can facilitate working with UAF’s Office of Intellectual Property.

This data management policy guidance document is an evolving document. Help us improve it. If you have questions or see an area that can be clarified or improved in this policy please let us know on the data management issue tracker. This guidance is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and is derived from of the University of BATH Research Data Policy.