By Kate Matthews

More than 85 postdocs, trainees, grad students and faculty members attended the new Research Data Management Workshop, cohosted by CCTS, UAB Libraries, and the School of Health Professions. CCTS Co-Director of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) and Professor and Vice Chair of UAB Biostatistics David Redden, PhD, led the discussion on data management (DM) principles, including why it is important to consider the entire data lifecycle, and highlighted DM resources at UAB to help investigators manage their data.

“You wouldn’t build a house without laying a foundation first,” Redden began, “so one of the first things you should do before starting your research is to plan how you will manage the data lifecycle.” He defined data management as “a series of practices designed to maximize and protect the quality, utility, and completeness of an investigator’s research data.”

The Data Lifecycle: The Good and The Bad

Redden noted that ideally one considers every stage of the data lifecycle, which includes the following:

• Project planning
  
  • Pro tip – Build a data dictionary that contains all your variables, how they were measured, how to record missing data, and acceptable values.
• Writing a data management plan (see key components below)
• Data acquisition and entry (i.e., naming conventions, software, and logic and range checks)
• Data quality control/data version control/metadata procedures
  
  • Pro tip – Metadata is data about data. Develop a page or file that describes all of your research files, e.g., raw data, processed data, programs, images).
• Data analysis
  
  • Pro tip – Use a syntax recorder for documentation, work with a methodologist who can program it.
• Publication and data sharing
  
  • Pro tip – Building an archive increases reproducibility.
• Data preservation and archiving (i.e., both short- and long-term storage)
• Data reuse

A less comprehensive but more common approach—planning the project, acquiring and analyzing data, and publishing the results—can make it challenging to share or reuse data. Keeping all data in one office or repository with little documentation increases the chance that data will be lost. This is considered “the bad” approach to handling the data lifecycle.

Bad turns to ugly, Redden explained, when, in addition to the above, there is poor record management, a lack of a metadata file or data dictionary, no routine process for backing up, and not knowing who on the research team has the latest version of the data. This is where a well-thought-out management plan can save the day(ta).

Data Management Planning

The planning stage is key to data management, Redden said, mentioning several websites that provide good examples of such plans (see www.uab.edu/faculty/rdm for a UAB version or download a free data management plan template at DMPTool). Investigators should address the following in their plan:

• Data types
• Contextual details (Metadata)
• Storage, backup, and security
• Provisions for protection/privacy
• Policies for re-use, accessing, sharing, archiving, and preserving

Campus Resources

Redden ended with a quote from Benjamin Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” DM is labor intensive and requires constant attention, he said, but investing the time at the beginning stages of one’s research will pay dividends for years to come. He encouraged the audience to take advantage of research data management expertise at UAB, such as the free weekly BERD Drop-in Clinics offered by CCTS. Additional UAB DM resources are listed below.

• CCTS Research Commons (BERD) (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 4-7442)
• UAB Informatics Institute (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 4-1958) 
• UAB Department of Medicine RedCap (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 4-4357)
• Lister Hill Library (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 4-2231)

In case you missed the workshop, Dr. Redden’s slide deck and video recording are available here. Dr. Redden will reprise this topic at our next CCTS Forum on Wednesday, Dec. 6, where he and other experts will answer questions and highlight additional tools and techniques for research data management.

Want to hear more about a specific topic on research data management? Contact the CCTS at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..