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Scope
What is research data in the visual arts?
Research data can be described as "data which arises out of, and evidences research… examples of visual arts research data may include sketchbooks, log books, sets of images, video recordings, trials, prototypes, ceramic glaze recipes, found objects, and correspondence” (Garrett and Gramstadt, 2012).
Why is research data management important?
The university acknowledges that research data is a valuable asset and offers considerable potential to enhance its learning, teaching, research and knowledge transfer activities, and therefore its appropriate management is essential in order to minimise its loss and maximise its value.
Research councils and researchers are under increasing pressure to make publicly funded data freely available. As such the publication of research data is increasingly becoming a requirement of funding (DCC 2012 and UKRI 2021). Equally important is the need for increased data transparency, and to enable researchers to access existing datasets to test the validity and reliability of the data and associated research methods; to reinterpret the data; and to preserve the data for future scrutiny.
In response, many universities have established (or are in the process of piloting) research data management strategies, policies, support services and systems to engage and facilitate the deposit, publication and preservation of research data.
Research Excellence and Ethics
In accordance with the university’s commitment to research excellence, the creation, management, publication and preservation of research data by staff and postgraduate students will comply with the Concordat on Open Research Data (UKRI 2016); UCA Guidance on Good Research Conduct (2011) and the UCA Research Ethics Code of Practice (2016).
Roles and Responsibilities
Responsibility for research data management and compliance with this Policy lies with the researcher or postgraduate student. In the absence of either, a plan for the future management of any research data will be explored and agreed with the Director of School or Department or Supervisor as appropriate.
The Library will explore the service options to provide researchers and postgraduate students advice and guidance on managing their research data.
The University will investigate and develop an appropriate infrastructure to support the management of its research data, exploring options for storage, backup, access control, deposit, sharing, publication, preservation, legal compliance and contractual obligations of managing research data throughout its complete lifecycle.
Data Retention
Research data should be retained and preserved in accordance with funder requirements and in accordance with this Policy.
Costs
The cost of data management, including sharing, publication and preservation where applicable should be written into research proposals and studentships, unless explicitly excluded by the funder.
Data Management Plans
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is usually required for externally funded research projects and consideration of data management planning is highly recommended for internally funded projects and personal research. The DMP should address the issues of data capture; management; integrity; confidentiality; retention; sharing and publication.
Access and Publication
In the event that research data is required to be released for regulatory and/or contractual requirements this must be in accordance with appropriate safeguards in accordance with this Policy.
If research data is published outside the university it must be deposited only in compliance with this Policy. It is expected that research outputs for researchers would be uploaded into UCA Research Online.
Researchers who generate data have reasonable right of exclusive first use of the data for an appropriate and well-defined period, which may vary by subject and disciplinary area.
Research data supporting and underlying published research finds should be published on an open access basis, to enable research to be tested, validated and reused, unless required otherwise by funders, publishers embargoes, ethic constraints or other legal or contractual constraints apply, in which case licensing conditions must be clearly stated.
Reuse and Citation
When re-using the research data created by other researchers, the source should always be acknowledged and cited, and the same legal, ethical and regulatory requirements be respected under which the data was originally collected and produced.
Review
The Library will review this Policy every year and any significant changes will be considered and approved by the Research and Innovation Committee.
January 2024
Review: January 2025
