Why it’s important to manage your research data properly

We would like to thank all the research students who attended the ‘Managing your research data’ webinar that we hosted with the Research Data Consulting team.

Managing and storing research data for long-term use is important for ensuring the reproducibility and verification of research results, meeting compliance requirements, preserving valuable data resources, enabling collaboration, and supporting innovation and discovery. 

1. Reproducibility and verification
   Research data is the foundation of scientific research, and reproducibility is a fundamental principle of the scientific method. By managing research data for long-term use, researchers can ensure that their results can be verified, replicated and reproduced by others. This is critical to establishing the credibility and reliability of research findings.

2. Compliance
   Many funding agencies and journals require researchers to make their data available for verification and future research. By managing research data properly, researchers can ensure they meet these requirements and avoid potential penalties for non-compliance.
3. Preservation
   Research data is a valuable resource that needs to be preserved and protected over time. Proper management can help prevent data loss due to technology obsolescence, data corruption, or natural disasters.
4. Collaboration
   By managing research data effectively, researchers can collaborate more easily and efficiently with other researchers. Sharing data can lead to new insights, more robust research findings, and more efficient use of resources.
5. Innovation
   Research data can be a valuable resource for innovation and discovery. Managing research data effectively can help facilitate new research questions, hypotheses and potential collaborations, thereby contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge.