Skip to Main Content

University Library

Research Data Management Toolkit

Best practices in Research Data Management promote research integrity and collaborative opportunities. A Research Data Management Plan ensures data security, accessibility and validation of results.

Data publishing

Publishing your data and making it available to others can improve the impact of your research significantly. It contributes to the body of knowledge in your discipline and reduces duplication of effort. Publishing your data also makes your research more reliable with increased reproducibility, and articles with published datasets are more highly cited. The FAIR Principles provide guidance to ensure that your data is not only published, but is reusable.

Like Open Access for journal articles, Open Data does not have any access restrictions and is publicly available. Anyone can read, copy, download or link to the data free of charge. For more information on open research see the Open Access Toolkit.

Some research funders require that datasets generated from their funding be published. Some funder requirements are detailed on the Funder requirements tab.

No matter if or how you choose to publish your data it is important to carefully consider the permissions you apply. If you want to share your data with others you must apply a licence to it. In Australia, having no licence on a work equals "all rights reserved", which means that while it may be accessible, the copyright holder has not permitted any reuse of their data.

Creative Commons licences are recommended to specify how your data can be reused. See Copyright at UWA for more information on the licences. The UWA Research Integrity Policy recommends using the CC-BY licence where possible.

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Research Data Rights Management Guide also addresses copyright and IP rights in data, describes how Creative Commons licences may be applied to research data, discusses data rights management for data you own or create and addresses considerations for data you use. 

It is good practice to assign a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which is a persistent online address for your dataset and can be used for citation and use tracking.

If you deposit your data in the UWA Profiles and Research Repository a DOI will be automatically assigned to your dataset; providing that DOI to journal editors where you are required to publish data along with your articles will meet those requirements. Many subject or discipline area repositories also offer this service.

If your data is sensitive, you might need to de-identify or anonymise the data prior to publication - only data classified as Public should be fully open. By removing identifying elements, a researcher can still benefit from publishing the data while respecting the privacy of the research subjects and not disclosing sensitive information.

The Australian Research Data Commons' (ARDC) Identifiable Data webpage collates a selection of Australian and international practice guidelines and resources on how to de-identify datasets.

Even if you are unable to publish your dataset you might still be able to share metadata about it, which still increases discoverability especially when it is housed in a major service such as Research Data Australia (RDA). All dataset metadata in the UWA Profiles and Research Repository is harvested into RDA on a weekly basis. In turn, both the Repository and RDA are indexed by Google, further increasing discoverability of your work.

For more information on how to determine what restrictions should apply to your data, refer to the sensitive data decision tree and the UWA data classification for researchers. 

Data journals are publications whose primary purpose is to expose datasets. Publication in these journals may be of interest to researchers and data producers for whom data is a primary research output. Like many conventional journals, data journals are peer-reviewed and are indexed in major databases.

Publishing data in the UWA Research Repository

The UWA Profiles and Research Repository, which is indexed by Google, allows researchers to deposit their research data, along with other research outputs, and to specify how 'open' that dataset will be. It is a good option for publishing your data because it allows you to control access through:

  • Setting an embargo period
  • Assigning the appropriate Creative Commons licence
  • Naming a contact person for those wanting to access your dataset

In addition, the UWA Repository:

  • creates a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for your dataset to facilitate data citation
  • enables you to add metadata, describing your dataset
  • facilitates harvesting of your dataset record by Research Data Australia
  • links data to related datasets, research outputs and some equipment

These features all contribute to making datasets published in the Repository FAIR.

The UWA Profiles and Research Repository Support Guide explains how to add your data to the Repository.

Mediated access

Researcher-mediated access allows access to the data after approval from the researchers. This ensures the data is used correctly through the provision of further context. The UWA Profiles and Research Repository can provide mediated access to your data.

Restricted access

Access to your data can be restricted by using password-controlled access to the dataset, while still making the metadata discoverable. Restricted access should apply to:

  • Research data with commercial potential
  • Medical research containing confidential patient data
  • Research data containing culturally sensitive information and
  • Third party data which have contractual agreements

For more information on how to determine what restrictions should apply to your data refer to the sensitive data decision tree and the UWA data classification for researchers. 

 

Publishing data in an external repository

You may wish to publish your data in an external subject/discipline specific repository, or a repository required by your funder or journal/publisher. There is no problem with this, provided the repository is secure and reputable. Outlined below are some important considerations when selecting a data repository. 

If your data is published in an external repository, a record of this should also be added to the UWA Profiles and Research Repository. Please email help-repository@uwa.edu.au with the link to the published record in the external repository. This information should also be included in the Dataset Action Record that you complete at the conclusion of your project.

Mandatory

  • Reputable - A re3data certified repository, a repository broadly recognised within your discipline, or endorsed by your funder or publisher, that is indexed in other resources that make the data more widely discoverable.
  • Unique Persistent Identifiers - Repository assigns a unique persistent identifier to the dataset (e.g. a DOI), which has a specific and persistent landing page.
  • Metadata - Detailed, machine-readable, fields are available to accurately describe the dataset. Preferably using a broadly recognised schema, or a schema developed for your discipline.
  • Access Controls - Provides mechanisms for data to be easily openly accessible or accessed via mediated access procedures as required
  • Licensing - You can assign rights information and terms and conditions for reuse, including widely-used open access licences such as Creative Commons licence
  • Backup - The repository has clear protocols for backup and recovery both for data files and for long-term viability of the platform

Other Considerations

  • File format preservation - Supports file preservation formats
  • Usage tracking - Provides clear guidance on how to cite the data and usage statistics for access and downloads
  • Search functionality - platform supports searching and browsing
  • Version control - files are time-stamped when uploaded, history of changes is recorded
  • Size and type of files - can the platform handle the type and file sizes you have?

More Information

The following sites contain useful and detailed information on evaluating data repositories:

CONTENT LICENCE

 Except for logos, Canva designs, AI generated images or where otherwise indicated, content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.