Data steward research
Description
As a research data steward, I support and work in close collaboration with the main data producers and users in academia: the researchers, ranging from undergraduate students to full professors. I advise researchers, make sure data is handled in a manner compliant with the institute’s policy and may also perform hands-on work in a project.
My work focuses on implementing the institute’s data guidelines and translating them into domain and project specific procedures, for example by managing a database or reviewing data management plans. My responsibilities and tasks focus on translating the researcher needs on data into infrastructural and service requirements.
Focus
- Develop and implement data management plans for projects and data collections and align Data Managements Plans (DMP) with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles and the principles of Open Science
- Advise projects and data collections on compliance with codes of conduct, regulations and field specific legal and ethical standards
- Provide adequate research data management (RDM) support to researchers. This involves, for example, supporting researchers in improving the reproducibility of their computational analyses or directing researchers to appropriate data management and archival solutions
- Monitor a project’s needs regarding data-infrastructure and tools for RDM
- Determine the adequate level of knowledge and skills of researchers on RDM
- Identify the requirements of adequate support and data infrastructure for FAIR and long-term archiving of data of a project
Learning path
Institutes across Europe have started hiring professional data stewards. A research oriented data steward is expected to be competent in the following areas:
- Create awareness and communicate about RDM and the FAIR data principles and translate RDM policies into guidelines for researchers
- Transform discipline specific research data into FAIR data with help of available services and tools
- Advise and assist researchers on short and long term actions for RDM
- Assess RDM knowledge and skills, identify gaps among researchers and take action when needed
- Understand the purpose and use of a DMP in a project and have the skills to utilise the available tools and templates to produce a DMP
- Assist researchers in developing a DMP, review DMPs, and support researchers in putting DMPs into action
- Liaise with the surrounding environment (department, project, national stakeholders and international network) and continuously follow the field to gain knowledge of relevant facilities, tools and emerging standards available for RDM
More information
Related RDMkit pages in "Your tasks"
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Compliance monitoring & measurement
Measure compliance to data management regulations and standards. -
Data management plan
How to write a data management plan (dmp). -
Data organisation
Best practices to name and organise research data. -
Licensing
How to license research data. -
Documentation and metadata
How to document and describe your data. -
Data protection
How to make research data compliant to gdpr. -
Data publication
Prepare data and find repositories for publication. -
Data quality
Ensure high quality research data. -
Data transfer
How to transfer data files. -
Identifiers
How to use identifiers for research data.
Relevant tools and resources
Skip tool table| Tool or resource | Description | Related pages | Registry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argos | Plan and follow your data. Bring your Data Management Plans closer to where data are generated, analysed and stored. | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | |
| Atlas | Free, publicly available web-based, open-source software application developed by the OHDSI community to support the design and execution of observational analyses to generate real world evidence from patient level observational data. | Data steward research Researcher TransMed | bio.tools FAIRsharing TeSS |
| BBMRI-ERIC's ELSI Knowledge Base | The ELSI Knowledge Base is an open-access resource platform that aims at providing practical know-how for responsible research. | Data protection Sensitive data Data steward policy Data steward research Human data | |
| Beacon | The Beacon protocol defines an open standard for genomics data discovery. | Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Human data | bio.tools TeSS |
| Bitbucket | Git based code hosting and collaboration tool, built for teams. | Data organisation Data steward research Data steward infrastructure | |
| Bulk Rename Utility | File renaming software for Windows | Data organisation Data steward research Researcher | |
| Castor | Castor is an EDC system for researchers and institutions. With Castor, you can create and customize your own database in no time. Without any prior technical knowledge, you can build a study in just a few clicks using our intuitive Form Builder. Simply define your data points and start collecting high quality data, all you need is a web browser. | Identifiers Data steward infrastructure Data steward research | bio.tools |
| Choose a license | Choose an open source license | Licensing Researcher Data steward research Data steward policy | TeSS |
| Create a Codebook | Examples and tools to create a codebook by the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research | |
| Creative Commons License Chooser | It helps you choose the right Creative Commons license for your needs. | Licensing Researcher Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| Crop Ontology | The Crop Ontology compiles concepts to curate phenotyping assays on crop plants, including anatomy, structure and phenotype. | Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Plant sciences | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| Data Curation Centre Metadata list | List of metadata standards | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research | |
| Data INRAE | Dataverse for life sciences and agronomic related data | Plant sciences Plant Genomics Researcher Data steward research | FAIRsharing |
| Data Stewardship Wizard | Publicly available online tool for composing smart data management plans | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure NeLS TSD | bio.tools TeSS |
| Data Use Ontology | DUO allows to semantically tag datasets with restriction about their usage. | Data steward research Researcher Human data | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| DATAVERSE | Open source research data respository software. | Data storage Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure IFB | TeSS |
| DMP Canvas Generator | Questionnaire, which generates a pre-filled a DMP | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | |
| DMP OPIDoR | Online questionnaire for the development of data management plans - repository of DMPs | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research IFB | |
| DMPlanner | Semi-automatically generated, searchable catalogue of resources that are relevant to data management plans. | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | |
| DMPonline | A free tool to write, share and export a data management plan. Built-in data management plan templates for many major funders. | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | TeSS |
| DMPTool | Build your Data Management Plan | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | |
| DMPTuuli | Data management planning tool (Finland) | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research CSC | |
| e!DAL-PGP | Plant Genomics and Phenomics Research Data Repository | Plant sciences Plant Genomics Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure | FAIRsharing |
| EasyDMP | DMP creation, versioning and sharing | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | |
| ECPGR | Hub for the identification of plant genetic resources in Europe | Plant sciences Researcher Data steward research | |
| ELIXIR Deposition Databases for Biomolecular Data | List of discipline-specific deposition databases recommended by ELIXIR. | Data publication Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure COVID-19 Data Portal NeLS IFB CSC | FAIRsharing |
| EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service | EMBL-EBI’s web portal for finding ontologies | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Researcher | TeSS |
| EMBL-EBI's data submission wizard | EMBL-EBI's wizard for finding the right EMBL-EBI repository for your data. | Data publication Researcher Data steward research | |
| EUDAT licence selector wizard | EUDAT's wizard for finding the right licence for your data or code. | Licensing Researcher Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| EURISCO | European Search Catalogue for Plant Genetic Resources | Plant sciences Researcher Data steward research | bio.tools |
| FAIDARE | FAIDARE is a tool allowing to search data across dinstinct databases that implemented BrAPI. | Researcher Data steward research Plant sciences IFB | bio.tools |
| FAIR Cookbook | FAIR Cookbook is an online resource for the Life Sciences with recipes that help you to make and keep data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) | Compliance monitoring & measurement Data steward research TransMed | |
| FAIR Evaluation Services | Resources and guidelines to assess the FAIRness of digital resources. | Compliance monitoring & measurement Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| FAIRassist.org | Help you discover resources to measure and improve FAIRness. | Compliance monitoring & measurement Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| fairsharing | A curated, informative and educational resource on data and metadata standards, inter-related to databases and data policies. | Documentation and metadata Data publication Data steward policy Data steward research Researcher Microbial biotechnology Existing data | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| GA4GH data security toolkit | Principled and practical framework for the responsible sharing of genomic and health-related data. | Data publication Data steward policy Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Human data | |
| GA4GH regular and ethical toolkit | Framework for Responsible Sharing of Genomic and Health-Related Data | Data protection Sensitive data Data steward policy Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Human data | |
| Git | Distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects | Data organisation Data steward research Data steward infrastructure | TeSS |
| GitHub | Versioning system, used for sharing code, as well as for sharing of small data | Data publication Data organisation Data steward infrastructure Data steward research | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| GitLab | GitLab is an open source end-to-end software development platform with built-in version control, issue tracking, code review, CI/CD, and more. Self-host GitLab on your own servers, in a container, or on a cloud provider. | Data organisation Data publication Data steward infrastructure Data steward research | TeSS |
| Harvard Medical School – ELN Comparison Grid | ELN Comparison Grid by Hardvard Medical School | Documentation and metadata Identifiers Researcher Data steward research | |
| How to License Research Data - DCC | Guidelines about how to license research data from Digital Curation Centre | Licensing Researcher Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| HumanMine | HumanMine integrates many types of human data and provides a powerful query engine, export for results, analysis for lists of data and FAIR access via web services. | Data organisation Data steward research Researcher Human data Data analysis | bio.tools FAIRsharing TeSS |
| Identifiers.org | The Identifiers.org Resolution Service provides consistent access to life science data using Compact Identifiers. Compact Identifiers consist of an assigned unique prefix and a local provider designated accession number (prefix:accession). | Identifiers Data steward infrastructure Data steward research | bio.tools FAIRsharing |
| ISA-tools | Open source framework and tools helping to manage a diverse set of life science, environmental and biomedical experiments using the Investigation Study Assay (ISA) standard | Data steward infrastructure Data steward research Microbial biotechnology | FAIRsharing |
| Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV) | Web portal for finding ontologies | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Researcher | |
| MIADE | Minimum Information About Disorder Experiments (MIADE) standard | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research Intrinsically disordered proteins | |
| MIAPPE | Minimum Information About a Plant Phenotyping Experiment | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research Plant sciences Plant Genomics | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| MIGS/MIMS | Minimum Information about a (Meta)Genome Sequence | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research Marine metagenomics Microbial biotechnology | FAIRsharing |
| MIxS | Minimum Information about any (x) Sequence | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research Marine metagenomics Plant Genomics | FAIRsharing TeSS |
| Molgenis | Molgenis is a modular web application for scientific data. Molgenis provides researchers with user friendly and scalable software infrastructures to capture, exchange, and exploit the large amounts of data that is being produced by scientific organisations all around the world. | Identifiers Data steward infrastructure Data steward research | bio.tools |
| MRI2DICOM | a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) converter from ParaVision® (Bruker, Inc. Billerica, MA) file format to DICOM standard | Researcher Data steward research XNAT-PIC | |
| OHDSI | Multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary collaborative to bring out the value of health data through large-scale analytics. All our solutions are open-source. | Researcher Data steward research Data analysis Data storage TransMed Toxicology data | bio.tools |
| OMERO | OMERO is an open-source client-server platform for managing, visualizing and analyzing microscopy images and associated metadata | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Data storage OMERO | bio.tools TeSS |
| Ontobee | A web portal to search and visualise ontologies | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Researcher | FAIRsharing |
| ONTOMATON | OntoMaton facilitates ontology search and tagging functionalities within Google Spreadsheets. | Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure Documentation and metadata Identifiers | |
| Open Definition Conformant Licenses | Licenses that are conformant with the principles laid out in the Open Definition. | Licensing Researcher Data steward research Data steward policy | |
| OpenEBench | ELIXIR benchmarking platform to support community-led scientific benchmarking efforts and the technical monitoring of bioinformatics reosurces | Data analysis Data steward research Data steward infrastructure | bio.tools |
| OSF | OSF (Open Science Framework) is a free, open platform to support your research and enable collaboration. | Data storage Researcher Data steward research | |
| RDA Standards | Directory of standard metadata, divided into different research areas | Documentation and metadata Researcher Data steward research | |
| REDCap | REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. While REDCap can be used to collect virtually any type of data in any environment, it is specifically geared to support online and offline data capture for research studies and operations. | Identifiers Data steward infrastructure Data steward research Data quality | bio.tools |
| Renamer4Mac | File renaming software for Mac | Data organisation Data steward research Researcher | |
| Repository Finder | Repository Finder can help you find an appropriate repository to deposit your research data. The tool is hosted by DataCite and queries the re3data registry of research data repositories. | Data publication Researcher Data steward research | |
| Research Management Plan | Machine actionable DMPs. | Data management plan Researcher Data steward research | TeSS |
| Research Object Crate (RO-Crate) | RO-Crate is a lightweight approach to packaging research data with their metadata, using schema.org. An RO-Crate is a structured archive of all the items that contributed to the research outcome, including their identifiers, provenance, relations and annotations. | Documentation and metadata Data storage Data organisation Data steward research Researcher Microbial biotechnology | FAIRsharing |
| RETTE | System for Risk and compliance. Processing of personal data in research and student projects at UiB. | Data protection Sensitive data Data steward policy Data steward research Human data | |
| Rightfield | RightField is an open-source tool for adding ontology term selection to Excel spreadsheets | Researcher Documentation and metadata Data steward research Microbial biotechnology Identifiers | bio.tools |
| Schemapedia | Web portal for finding ontologies | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Researcher | |
| Scientific Data's Recommended Repositories | List of respositories recommended by Scientific Data, contains both discipline-specific and general repositories. | Data publication Researcher Data steward research Data steward infrastructure | |
| semares | All-in-one platform for life science data management, semantic data integration, data analysis and visualization | Researcher Data steward research Documentation and metadata Data analysis Data steward infrastructure Data storage | |
| Talend | Talend is an open source data integration platform. | Data steward research Researcher TransMed | |
| The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry | Collaborative effort to develob interoperable ontologies for the biological sciences | Documentation and metadata Data steward research Researcher | FAIRsharing |
| tranSMART | Knowledge management and high-content analysis platform enabling analysis of integrated data for the purposes of hypothesis generation, hypothesis validation, and cohort discovery in translational research. | Researcher Data steward research Data analysis Data storage TransMed | bio.tools |
| Tryggve ELSI Checklist | A list of Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications (ELSI) to consider for research projects on human subjects | Sensitive data Data steward policy Data steward research Human data NeLS CSC TSD | |
| University of Cambridge - Electronic Research Notebook Products | List of Electronic Research Notebook Products by University of Cambridge | Documentation and metadata Identifiers Researcher Data steward research | |
| Wellcome Open Research - Data Guidelines | Wellcome Open Research requires that the source data underlying the results are made available as soon as an article is published. This page provides information about data you need to include, where your data can be stored, and how your data should be presented. | Data publication Researcher Data steward research | |
| XNAT-PIC Pipelines | Analysing of single or multiple subjects within the same project in XNAT | Researcher Data steward research Data analysis XNAT-PIC | |
| XNAT-PIC Uploader | Import tool for multimodal DICOM image datasets to XNAT | Researcher Data steward research XNAT-PIC |
