Funders expect data plans to cover how data will be collected or created, managed, shared and preserved. Plans should include information on expected / potential difficulties that may arise during a research project, along with causes and possible measures to overcome these difficulties.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have set expectations on the routine management and sharing of research data, known as Common Principles. These common principles provide a framework for the individual Research Council policies on data policy.
The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) provide an overview of the coverage of individual funders' policies for publication and data, and the support that they provide for researchers. Full details are available directly from the individual funders' pages:
Arts and Humanities Research Council: Research Funding Guide (Data Management Plan information on page 51)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council: Data Management Plan Application Guidance
British Heart Foundation: How to apply for a research grant
Cancer Research: Practical guidance for researchers on writing data sharing plans
EPSRC: EPSRC Policy Framework on Research Data
ESRC: ESRC Research Data Policy
European Commission Horizon 2020: Data Management, Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020
MRC: Data Sharing
NERC: Data Management Plan Guidance, Data Policy
STFC: Data Management Review Guidance
The Royal Society: Research Grants, Data Sharing and Mining
Wellcome Trust: How to complete an outputs management plan
Funders expect data plans to cover how data will be collected or created, managed, shared and preserved. Plans should include information on expected / potential difficulties that may arise during a research project, along with causes and possible measures to overcome these difficulties.
A good DMP will usually cover the following themes, but will vary in exact details and requirements dependent on the funder that is being applied to:
Much of data management is simply good research practice that you will be doing already. Data plans are just a way of articulating or evidencing that you've thought about how to create, store, backup, share and preserve your data. The DCC has produced an interactive online tool to help researchers create data management plans: DMPonline The website has a record of major UK/European funder requirements, so it can also tailor the template to your particular funder.
F.A.I.R. Data Principles are a set of principles to guide researchers in making their research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (Wilkinson et al. 2016), directing data producers and publishers to promote maximum use of research data. The Principles also highlight the importance of data to be machine-readable, as humans rely on computers to search for and deal with increasing volumes of data, in addition to data complexity.
Following the FAIR Principles would be seen as good research practice by all Research Funders, particularly beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 funding. Data Management Plans for European Commission projects must address how datasets will be created, if these data can be made accessible and how they will be curated, stored and preserved. Further details can be found in the following documents:
H2020 Programme: Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020
Go Fair expand on the granular details of the F.A.I.R. Principles (CC-BY 4.0):
The first step in (re)using data is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers. Machine-readable metadata are essential for automatic discovery of datasets and services, so this is an essential component of the FAIRification process.
F1. (Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier
F2. Data are described with rich metadata
F3. Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe
F4. (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource
Once the user finds the required data, she/he needs to know how can they be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation.
A1. (Meta)data are retrievable by their identifier using a standardised communications protocol
A1.1 The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable
A1.2 The protocol allows for an authentication and authorisation procedure, where necessary
A2. Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available
The data usually need to be integrated with other data. In addition, the data need to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing.
I2. (Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles
I3. (Meta)data include qualified references to other (meta)data
The ultimate goal of FAIR is to optimise the reuse of data. To achieve this, metadata and data should be well-described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings.
R1. Meta(data) are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attributes
R1.1. (Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license
R1.2. (Meta)data are associated with detailed provenance
R1.3. (Meta)data meet domain-relevant community standards
The principles refer to three types of entities: data (or any digital object), metadata (information about that digital object), and infrastructure. For instance, principle F4 defines that both metadata and data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource (the infrastructure component).
Coventry University Group is committed to processing personal/sensitive personal data in accordance with:
You must comply with the DPA 2018 and/or GDPR principles as appropriate, if your research data includes:
GDPR places greater emphasis on organisations to comply with Data Protection legislation where organisation is acting as a Data Controller, who determine the purpose for which and the manner in which personal data are collected and processed (e.g. Coventry University is a Data Controller if your research is in connection with the University). The new Data protection regime also provides enhanced and new rights for individual such as Right to Data Portability, not all rights will apply where personal data is processed for the research project.
Please contact the University’s Information Governance Unit (IGU) who regulates governance and compliance over data protection and privacy matters. Please ensure you initiate the contact with IGU as early as possible in your project if you require advice or assistance on any data protection points or query.
Information Governance Unit - enquiry.igu@coventry.ac.uk
Guidance on information security incidents and digital compliance is available on the Digital Services:Information Security page (internal page).
To report a data breach incident - Please report the incident via the Data Breach Form and notify IGU via databreach.igu@coventry.ac.uk.
Useful Websites
Information Commissioner's Office
The DCC - Five Things You Need to Know About RDM and the Law: DCC Checklist on Legal Aspects of RDM
JISC Research Data Management Toolkit - Data protection regulation
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (e.g. copyright, patents, etc) affect the way both you and others can use your research outputs.
Failure to clarify rights at the start of the research process can lead to unexpected limitations to:
It can also cause you legal trouble.
Further information on IPR can be found on the University's IPR webpages
Frequently Asked Questions
Are research data or data derivatives protected by copyright law?
Copyright law sometimes protects data and other research products (provided that you share them with the proper copyright statement or end-user agreement), but it depends on the nature of your data or files.
The University has a Copyright webpage, which provides information and contacts for who to consult on copyright questions in various situations (e.g. research grants and funding, commercialisation and intellectual property, etc).
A seminar was held in 2011 (hosted by CRASHH and the Incremental Project). Andrew Charlesworth (Centre for IT & Law, University of Bristol) gave a presentation that addressed some copyright issues:
'Intellectual Property Rights and Research Data - Focus on copyright' [32 mins 6 secs].
He also participated in a short interview on the same subject [2 mins 34 secs].
What are my intellectual property rights with regard to research data at Coventry University?
This depends on whether you are a student, post-doc, PI/project director, your relationship with the University, your role in the project, and your agreement with other parties (funders, study participants, corporate partners, etc). Advice can be sought via the University's webpages and by contacting colleagues listed below, under the 'Who can help me with Copyright and IPR?' question.
Can I use materials that I find online?
It depends on how those materials are licensed. IPR is usually in play, even if you don't see a "©" or 'all rights reserved' notice. When in doubt, contact the University Copyright Officer (contact information in FAQ below) for advice, or ask the website administrator or publisher who distributed the content for permission directly.
The Web2Rights project has produced a useful IPR & Legal Issues Toolkit for the web.
How can I make it easier for others to re-use the materials that I produce?
One relatively simple way to make it easier for others to re-use tools, data, or other content that you produce is to add a Creative Commons license.
For example ‘By-Attribution, Non-Commercial’ is a common Creative Commons license – when you mark your file, image, or information with this, it means that anyone can use your information in any way they like, so long as they attribute it to you and don’t use it for commercial purposes. Creative Commons licenses are often used for materials released online, but you can also include these in printed materials if you don't have a publisher who owns the rights. For additional information and Creative Commons license options, visit the www.creativecommons.org.
To license something with a Creative Commons license, you don't need to file any paperwork -- just publish (in print or on the web) your materials along with a notification that you are using a particular license.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Creative Commons licenses are 'irrevocable' so don't add a Creative Commons license unless you are sure that (1) you have the right to publish this information, and (2) you won't want to re-voke it later on for any reason.
Who can help me with Copyright and IPR?
For information on Copyright, please contact:
Phil Brabban
University Librarian and Group Director of Learning Resources, LIB
Telephone: 024 7688 7519
E-mail: p.brabban@coventry.ac.uk
For general questions on IPR or to discuss Intellectual Property Disclosure Forms, contact:
Mandy Tipple
Business Development Support Office
Mobile: 07974 98 4387
E-mail: ipr@coventry.ac.uk
Director of IP Services
Brian More
Mobile: 07974 98 4928
E-mail: ipr@coventry.ac.uk
For questions touching on commercialisation, contact:
Tim Francis
IPR Commercialisation Manager
Mobile: 07557 42 5047
E-mail: ipr@coventry.ac.uk
What rights do other people have to request my work - i.e. Freedom of Information Act (FOI)?
The Freedom of Information Act of 2000 (FOIA) gives all members of the public the right to request any information produced with public money, but there are some exemptions.
For information about FOI at Coventry, see the CU FOI page.
Further Reading
Web2Rights IPR & Legal Issues Toolkit Information on intellectually property rights pertaining to Web 2.0 internet resources.
Alex Ball has created a presentation for the Digital Curation Centre/University of Bath on Derestricting Datasets: How to License Research Data
As members of a publicly-funded university, you may receive requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).
Deadline
Once the University has received an information request, it has 20 working days to respond to an FOI request and up to 40 for an EIR request. Both FOI and EIR include a number of exemptions and exceptions respectively against disclosure. This is because the legislation recognised that not all official information ought to be disclosed. For example to protect information such as confidential, sensitive data or personal information. If you are unsure about disclosure, consult the University's FOI officer foia@coventry.ac.uk.
Article Processing Charge (APC) - Fee which may be payable to the publisher to publish via the gold open access route. When an article is published in a traditional subscription journal, the author pays an APC to make their individual article freely available from the journal website, without restriction or charge to the reader.
CC-BY Licence - Creative Commons Attribution Licence. This is the most liberal of the CC licences. As long as the original author(s) receives attribution, this allows anyone to copy, distribute or transmit the research, adapt the research and make commercial use of the research. RCUK requires this licence is used if the gold open access route is selected. The Wellcome Trust encourage its use, and will cover the costs of any APC where an article is published under this licence.
Corresponding Authors - The author responsible for manuscript correction, correspondence during submission, handling of revisions and re-submission of the revised manuscript. On acceptance of the manuscript, the corresponding author is responsible for co-ordinating any application for payment of a Gold Open Access Article Processing Charge (APC).
Creative Commons Licences - Creative Commons licences can be used in open access publishing to help authors retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make use of their work. There are several different Creative Commons licences, which allow different types of re-use. See the Creative Commons website.
Curve open - CURVE Open is the University's repository for educational resources and open access items other than research publications. The aim of this open access institutional repository is to showcase University research and teaching, increasing accessibility to, and raising the visibility of our authors work.
Open Access - Open access is the practice of providing free, unlimited online access to scholarly works and research outputs in a digital format, with limited restrictions on re-use. A key driver behind OA has been to make publicly-funded research accessible to tax-payers.
FL320, Lanchester Library
Coventry University
Frederick Lanchester Building
Gosford Street
Coventry, United Kingdom
CV1 5DD
Open Access and Pure Deposits - oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk
Research Data Management - rdm.lib@coventry.ac.uk
024 7765 7568
We hold regular drop-ins at all of our Research Centres. To find the next one, please see the full calendar of our drop-ins.