Data Management Guidelines

In the guidelines you will find, among others, detailed advice on preparing a data management plan, guidelines on informing research participants about the processing of their personal data, and practical tips on anonymising both quantitative and qualitative research data. The online guidelines are written by FSD's data service experts.

Contents of Data Management Guidelines

Why Are Research Data Managed and Reused?
- Part of good scientific practice
- Research funders require data management
- Benefits of reuse and open access
- Research data life cycle
Data Management Planning
- Data management plan
- The data
- Rights
- Confidentiality and data security
Copyright and Agreements
- Copyright
- Agreements between researchers
- Agreement concerning the transfer of rights
- Authorship in scientific publications and research data
Informing about Personal Data Processing
- Clarity requirements and form of the information
- Timing for providing the information
- Content of the information
- Exceptions to the obligation to provide information
File Formats and Software
- Converting files
- Digitisation of research data
- Data matrices and statistical packages
- Textual data
Processing Quantitative Data Files
- Recording a data matrix
- Variable names and labels
- Values and value labels
- Missing data
Processing Qualitative Data Files
- Transcription
- Organizing files
- Naming files
- Documenting background information
Anonymisation and Personal Data
- What is personal data?
- What kind of information constitutes identifiable data?
- Processing research data containing identifiers
- When are data anonymous and when pseudonymous?
Data Description and Metadata
- Storing metadata
- Description of how the study was conducted
- Instrument of data collection
- Description of data files and variables
Physical Data Storage
- Naming and managing files
- Backup and recovery
- Migration and refreshing
- Storage media
Guides, Examples and Vocabularies
- Archiving Data Collected from Minors
- Use and Archiving of Social Media Data
- Background Information and Background Variables
- Vocabularies
Table of Contents and Citation
- Table of Contents
- Citation instructions