Checklist
Data management checklist for postgraduate researchers
Updated on 9 April 2024
Postgraduate researchers can use this checklist for data management planning.
Collecting data
Think about how you will collect your data. If it is personal data, especially sensitive data, you should have access to a managed or encrypted device. You can collect data directly onto a University desktop by using the remote desktop.
Consider what data you will collect. If you are collecting personal info, it should be the least needed for your project.
Make sure you have ethics clearance and informed consent of participants. This means you must tell people what you will do with their data and who you will share it with (now and in the future), how long you will keep it and why.
You may need the help of Information Governance to manage personal information correctly. You may also need to do a Data Privacy Impact Assessment.
Managing data
Plan for how you will label and organise data, records and files.
You should use standardised and consistent procedures to collect, process, transcribe, check, validate and verify data, such as standard protocols.
Consider if the formats and software you plan to use will allow sharing and the long-term survival of data. This includes non-proprietary software and software with open standards.
Are you using specialist software? Are you working with external companies, for example, for transcription services? Have these been approved by the University? This is important to ensure information security and proper management of personal information.
Documenting data
Will you and others be able to understand your data in the future?
Consider the documentation you need to explain what your data mean, how they were collected, and the methods used to create them.
Storing data
Are your data held in secure locations at all times? There is guidance on the appropriate use of University storages systems in our data protection for remote working factsheet.
Do you need to securely store personal or sensitive data? If so, are they properly protected? There are tips on how to secure your data in our guidance for researchers on data storage and security.
If data are collected with mobile devices, how will you transfer and store the data? You cannot transfer the personal data you collect as part of your research to external systems. This includes those you can access due to your professional role, and vice versa. The University provides you with access to its secure tenancy of MS 365, OneDrive, Teams etc. to collect and move research data. You are required to use Secure Mobile Working (Company Portal app) to keep data secure.
Make sure your files are backed up sufficiently and regularly and backups are stored safely. Establish a method for ensuring you know which version of your data files is the master.
Who can access your data and how? Are you sharing your data securely?
Do not send personal data via email attachments. Use your University OneDrive account to give strict access to files. In this way you can control the flow of data and protect the confidentiality of research participants.
Do you need to anonymise or pseudonymise your data i.e., to remove identifying information? There are guides created by the UK Data Service that can help you:
How will your data be managed after you have finished your studies? Who will be responsible for it? Who will have access? There is further guidance in the University Policy to Govern the Management of Research data
Retention
Do you need to keep all your data all the time? You should only keep it for as long is necessary and delete from devices when you are no longer using them. There is further guidance in the policy to govern the management of research data.
Copyright
For both primary and secondary data, have you established who owns the copyright in the data? Might there be joint copyright? Research participants can be asked to agree to joint copyright in their contributions to your research via consent forms.
Have you considered which kind of licence is appropriate for sharing your data and what, if any, restrictions there might be on reuse? Read our licensing data guide.
Future use
How and where will you preserve your research data for the longer term?
How will you make your data accessible to future users?
You can deposit data supporting your thesis, (anonymised if possible). Do this along with your thesis in the University Institutional Repository - Discovery. Do this after you get your degree. Discovery staff can advise on file format appropriate for long-term preservation.
University professional services staff in Library Services can support you with data collection, management, and archiving.
Here are some useful addresses:
This checklist has been adapted from a learning resource created by the UK Data Service.
There are a host of research data management resources at the UKDS learning hub.