Research data is a valuable product of research activity. It complements research outputs and publications.
How your research data will be managed should be a key consideration when planning your research project. The ACU Research Data Management Policy outlines your responsibilities.
Use this guide, in conjunction with the ACU Research Data Management Toolkit, to identify where to start and what you need to have in place to ensure your research data is effectively managed.
In accordance with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (The 2018 Code) and the ACU Research Data Management Policy, ACU researchers are responsible for maintaining accurate, complete, safe, secure and retrievable records of research approach, sources, data and primary materials.
A research data management plan will ensure you meet your responsibilities, including ethical decisions concerning the research data, and provide you with the answers to these questions:
Our Research Data Management Toolkit contains a template, and all the tools to assist you.
Ensuring your research data is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable), provides research transparency, promotes inquiry and debate and enables innovative uses of data that may not have been foreseen by the researchers at the time the data was generated.
The FAIR Data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) are a set of guiding principles proposed by a consortium of scientists and organisations to support the reusability of digital assets. Learn more about making your data FAIR.
The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance are people and purpose-oriented, reflecting the crucial role of data in advancing Indigenous innovation and self-determination. These principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics) complement the existing FAIR principles encouraging open and other data movements to consider both people and purpose in their advocacy and pursuits.
Ethics approval is required for all research conducted at Australian Catholic University, involving people, personal data, and human tissue, as well as research involving animals.
When you are completing your research data management plan, you will need to document your ethical decisions concerning the research data you will be collecting. Read more at ethics and consent.
ACU provides access to a range of survey tools to help you collate and analyse your data including:
Visit eResearch to discover more tools and additional support to help you manage your research.
See our text and data mining and data visualisation guides for more information.