Towards good scientific practice: Data management for research quality and data sharing

​The workshop was facilitated by Brian Kleiner and Alexandra Stam from FORS , the Swiss Center for Expertise in Social Sciences that also hosts a database and archive . Data management includes many important steps that need to be considered at different stages of a project. A data management plan is a helpful tool and can also be introduced in an advanced stage of a project. Guy Elcheroth, who is leading a r4d project in the Social Conflicts module, provided insights in how his research team deals with data collected in three countries (Sri Lanka, Burundi, Palestine). As drivers for responsible data sharing he identified collaborative research and informed consent. He also discussed three reasons that might speak against data sharing (sensitivity of data, de-contextualised data, biased credentials) and showed how his team deals with these limitations.

The participants also exchanged about practical tools for sharing data within their research teams and identified the following platforms...

...for sharing data:

SWITCHdrive (open for members of Universities and other research institutes in Switzerland but access can also be provided for research partners in other countries)

Polybox (for members of ETH Zurich)

Sharepoint (Windows application)

Resilio (Synchronization of files)

...for sharing literature or other resources:

Zotero (upload of pdfs, images, videos etc.)

Citavi (repository as well as tool for working collaboratively on a paper, plan etc.)

...for sharing educational material:

Moodle

For further information on data managment planning and on FORSbase you can contact Brian Kleiner , FORS.