RADS

The RADS initiative’s Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Activities provide a framework for researchers and administrators to navigate data sharing requirements across the research lifecycle. These activities acknowledge that data sharing varies by project and includes considerations for repositories, public access policies, persistent identifiers, and diverse research outputs like code and software. The framework distinguishes between data sharing and preservation activities, recognizes that activities may recur throughout projects, and emphasizes that specialized education and training may be needed at each phase. 

Version 4 of the activities, presented here, is a modified version that builds on v3 of the DMS Activities, and is used in our current research instruments. This version is not yet formally published.

These activities often occur in the planning and design phase of research projects, often before grant awards are made.   

• Consulting on data management plans (DMPs), data management and sharing plans (DMSPs), and/or other data plans 
• Consulting on data management and sharing costs and expenses to be included in grant budgets
• Reviewing of institutional review board (IRB) protocols and/or informed consent  language for data sharing 
• Developing, building, providing, or recommending storage solutions for active research data
• Developing, building, providing, or recommending appropriate data sharing repository (or repositories) (this includes advising on, managing, hosting, running, or otherwise facilitating access to a repository) 
• Assessing data security needs and/or recommending/providing solutions
• Supporting intellectual property and copyright considerations
• Checking for compliance with existing policies and/or federal requirements (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA], Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA], data use agreements [DUAs], materials transfer agreements)
• Referring to disciplinary, funder, and institutional standards, and/or supporting good practices for handling, collecting, documenting, and sharing data

These activities typically occur during the active phase of a project, including the collection and storage of active research data.

• Developing or advising on data documentation during active research (e.g., data dictionary, protocols), including version control documentation 
• Creating or reviewing established quality-control mechanisms or procedures
• Evaluating or recommending data-analysis tools and processes to support sharing and reproducibility 
• Supporting or providing services for the management of active data throughout the project (e.g., storage, security, backup, lab notebooks, including considerations for managing and storing large or specialized datasets)

Data Sharing

These activities typically occur during the sharing data phase of the project, typically by making data available beyond a research group, including the preparation of data to share.

• Consulting on what data to share or host, including addressing proper levels of access and security
• Consulting on, providing, and/or hosting repositories for making data available  
• Consulting on or preparing data for sharing; this may include (e.g., de-identification, checking for privacy/personally identifiable information [PII]/protected health information [PHI], considering ethical impacts, data selection, data curation, data cleaning, validation, reproducibility checking, or quality control) 
• Submitting or supporting submission of data into a data sharing platform/repository, including considerations for sharing and moving large or specialized datasets
• Creating or reviewing documentation for research data sharing (e.g., supporting the development of structured metadata and/or README files)
• Consulting, selecting, or applying appropriate reuse licenses to data and software/code 
• Recommending or transforming data file formats to be open or more accessible
• Creating, recommending, and/or ensuring use of persistent identifiers (PIDs) (e.g., DOIs, ORCIDs, RORs) 
• Developing or checking for compliance with data use agreements (DUAs) or material transfer agreements (MTAs) 

Post-Award Data Retention and Preservation

These activities typically include all data-related activities associated with data retention, including preservation, archiving, project closeout, and compliance.

• Consulting on or migrating files to new formats or across systems as needed 
• Monitoring integrity of preserved data 
• Making decisions about de-accessioning and removal of research data 
• Ensuring data security when appropriate (e.g., PHI/HIPAA, export controls, Federal Information Security Management Act [FISMA], student data [FERPA], and intellectual property) 
• Ensuring funding agency, institutional, and/or publisher requirements for data sharing and retention have been met
• Providing compliance support around research project reports and project closeout 

Training and Strategic Direction

These last activities can occur any time throughout a research project. 

• Developing or delivering training or educational materials for data sharing; implementing data sharing training
• Developing strategic direction for research data services or policy (including institutional policies, funder requirements, and/or data repository policies) in your unit or across campus