Skip to Main Content

UWA Research Data Hub Support

Guidance for creating a research data management plan (RDMP) and requesting UWA approved data storage.

How to Create a RDMP

Watch this video or follow the instructions below to create your RDMP.  To view the video, you may need to login with your UWA Uni ID credentials (e.g. staffnumber@uwa.edu.au or studentnumber@student.uwa.edu.au and Uni ID password).

 

To create your RDMP in the UWA Research Data Hub, log into the UWA Research Data Hub. You will be prompted to sign in with your UWA staffnumber@uwa.edu.au (for staff) or studentnumber@student.uwa.edu.au (for HDR candidate) and your Uni ID.

You will need to allocate sufficient time to complete your RDMP (approx 60mins). Partially completed RDMP’s cannot be saved. All mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk * and must be completed before you can save the form.

Select Create Research Data Management Plan (RDMP). This will open a new form.

There is a menu on the left of the page to help you navigate your way around. The first page gives you a brief introduction to the RDMP. 

Click next to commence and complete each section. 

TIPS:

  • All mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk. * 
  • Information to help you complete the required fields is found by clicking on the black help ? icon next to the title of the field. 
  • The navigation buttons at the bottom of the page allow you to move between different sections and allow you to save your changes. If you close without saving your changes first, all content you have just added to the form will be lost. All mandatory fields marked with an asterisk * must be completed and saved before closing the form. 
  • Click the green +icon to add an additional line where relevant.

When a RDMP has been successfully created in the UWA Research Data Hub, you will receive an automated confirmation email:

Subject of email : Research Data Management Plan <<RDMP ID>> has been created.
A Research Data Management Plan (RDMP) has been created in the UWA Research Data Hub for << Project name or RDMP ID>>. You are receiving this automated notification as you have been associated with the research project and its data. 

Project/Activity fields explained

RDMP ID - This field is automatically generated for you. 

ROAP Application ID -  If you have a ROAP Application ID for your research project/activity, or any other project identifier by which your project is known, information from your ROAP application can be automatically imported into your RDMP or you can keep typing and manually add this information. If you have a research project application in ROAP that was created in the past two years, you can type the full ROAP application ID e.g. 2022/GR000123 and select. The Project Name and Start/End dates will auto-populate into this RDMP.

Project/Activity name -  If you have entered in a ROAP ID, the project name will appear, or you can manually enter a new title.

Short Project/Activity name - This will be used as part of the name for the Research MS Teams site or IRDS share. Therefore, it should be short (maximum of 8 characters) without spaces or special characters. For example 'PTSD0124'

UWA School/Centre/Institute - Select the primary UWA organisational unit for this research project. This will be used for reporting purposes and to identify the Information Custodian. The Information Custodian is a senior employee accountable for University Information within their business capability. For research data, the Information Custodian will be the Head of School or Research Institute, for the primary organisational unit responsible for the research project.

People

This section of the RDMP, identifies the people associated with the research project and its data. It is mandatory to include the lead Chief Investigator (Information Custodian) and at least one RDMP administrator.  For HDR projects, it’s also mandatory to record the Coordinating Supervisor details. Start typing the first name and first letter of surname to see full list of possible matches for UWA staff and HDR students. If you can't find someone, check their name as it is recorded for their UWA account. For common first names, you may need to type the first few letters of their family name too.  You can only select someone who is external if they have a guest/visitor UWA account - find out more on the Request New Digital Guest access page.

Each UWA person selected can view the RDMP; Coordinating Supervisors and Investigators cannot edit the RDMP. Each role type also determines the data storage access rights if the RDMP is submitted to request digital storage provisioning.

For the RDMP Administrator role, select a UWA staff member who could be an alternative contact for this research project and its data. Two names are required to be listed on the RDMP in case the Chief Investigator is unable to be contacted for queries about the research data storage and accessing the data. For HDR Projects, where the UWA Chief Investigator is the HDR Candidate, the RDMP Administrator could be the Coordinating Supervisor.

Before including people on your RDMP, please ensure that you have their permission to be listed on the RDMP as they will receive a systems notification once the RDMP has been submitted.

 

Data description

This section is about the data of the research project/activity.

Here you can describe the sources of data, locations, conditions, the equipment and/or software used, phases and time periods. 

For example:

Data will include laboratory data created through Flow Cytometry analysis of blood samples, medical history data and skin prick test data. Flow cytometry data will be in .fcs format, analysed in FlowJo and output into .txt and .png formats.

Excel data will be saved in .xls format and archived in .csv format. Any data captured in Microsoft Word or text based software will be stored in .doc file format, and also archived in .txt. format.

Instrumentation will be calibrated regularly and before each cell analysis, as per standard laboratory protocol. Samples will be repeated in threes. Data entry into Excel workbooks will be validated with a system set up at inception of the project.

Top level folders will reflect the year and data type. Separate folders for raw data, working data and final versions will be kept as secondary level folders. Files will all be named with the date on which they were created or updated in yyyymmdd format. Consistency will be maintained in file naming standards and abbreviations. Master versions will be locked to editing and saved at key points of data collection and analysis.

Type of data - Physical non-digital data are any materials not kept on a computer (ie handwritten laboratory notes, journals, artwork, soil samples etc.),  are also at risk of loss. If it cannot be digitised as soon as possible, consider the conditions in which it will be stored. The basic principles apply to physical data as they do to digital data. See Storing physical data for more guidance.

Also in this section, you will indicate who will own the copyright and intellectual property of the research data and if there are specific sensitivities relevant to this data. If your research will include different types and levels of sensitive data, you can select more than one. Specific sensitivities may impact the storage of and access to your research data so please consider carefully.  

For further guidance see the Research Data Management Toolkit or use the Data Sensitivity Decision Tree.

Data storage

UWA researchers are required to store their research project/activity data in UWA approved research data stores. (Research Integrity Policy, 8.B.1).

Select the expected storage required in the next 12 months. To improve cost-efficiency for the University, please only select what you need. Storage can be increased if more is required in future.

As a guide, if you are working with files such as Word or Excel documents, it is unlikely that you will exceed 25GB.

Researchers can select any of these 4 storage options:​

  • New MS Teams/Sharepoint Research Site – recommended for data up to 1TB, also good for projects with external collaboration. Find out more about this option in the RDM Toolkit. ​
  • New IRDS – range of storage available from 25GB to 10TB​.
    • Due to current storage capacity issues with the IRDS, we will only be provisioning 2TB initially. If you need >2TB immediately, please contact hpc-admin@uwa.edu.au .
    • If 10TB is selected, researcher must explain why, as this request will be reviewed by IT and may need to be clarified by the Head of School or equivalent.
    • Find out more about this option in the RDM Toolkit. ​
  • External storage - If external storage is selected, the details of the approved exemption must be added.​
  • Existing UWA storage - If using existing storage, the storage location must be added to the RDMP form. ie IRDS pathname.

Ethics

If your research involves human participants or data, you will need to apply for ethical review. Your ethics application will need to be supported by a completed Research Data Management Plan (RDMP) which should be attached as a PDF to your ethics application.  

Please address potential ethical risks associated with your data and any strategies for minimising those risks.  This should include transmission, retention and archiving of the data as well as how you will publish /disseminate your work. Consult the Australian code for the responsible conduct of research, section 2 and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research section 3.1 for further information and the Western Australian University Sector Disposal Authority for guidance on retention periods.  

If you have indicated that your data is highly restricted due to cultural sensitivities please address potential Indigenous data sovereignty issues associated with your data and any strategies for managing these.

Upload attachments

If applicable, please upload any relevant documentation such as data sharing and/or transfer agreements that are not captured in ROAP, licenses, Research Collaboration agreements with indigenous communities, Department of Health requirements to store data, or other evidence of justification for using external storage. If you have not yet saved your form, you will need to do so before you can upload.

If you are adding multiple attachments, please use the Notes field after upload to describe the type of documentation.

Data storage requests

This page in the form will appear blank for new RDMPs. It will only display the data storage request details once a request for storage has been made.

Once you have saved and closed your completed RDMP, the Chief Investigator (CI) listed on the RDMP, will then have the option to request UWA approved data storage for your research project/activity. Go to, 'Plan > "View & Update RDMP", click on the blue 'Submit storage request' button.

Alternatively, the CI can go to the blue Data storage tab and create a data storage request.

Please note: The Chief Investigator (CI) can only submit a data storage request once for each RDMP, so please check that the correct data storage options have been selected in the RDMP.

Save your completed form

All mandatory fields marked with an asterisk * must be completed before the form can be saved. If you close without saving your changes first, all content you have just added to the form will be lost. 

Press the "Save" button to save any changes made to the form. If this is a new form, a new Research Data Management Plan (RDMP) will be created, otherwise the existing RDMP will be updated. 

Once you 'Save and Close' the form, the Chief Investigator listed on the RDMP will be able to request UWA approved data storage from Plan > select View & Update RDMP' , click on the blue 'Submit storage request' button. 

 

Example RDMPs

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.