Data Management Checklist (based on NCSU's checklist)
1. What type of data will you or your group produce?
- How will data be collected?
- Will it be reproducible? What would happen if the data get lost or can't be used?
- How much data will your project produce?
- At what growth rate?
- How often will it change?
- Do you need special tools or software to create, process, or visualize the data?
- Do you have a storage and backup strategy?
- What is it?
- Has anyone written it down anywhere? Can you find it easily?
2. How will you describe and document your data (standards & metadata)
- How will you document how you collected or created the data?
- Is there good project and data documentation?
- Or any at all? Can you find it easily?
- What directory and file naming conventions for the data files will you use?
- What project and data identifiers will be assigned?
- Is there a community standard for data sharing integration within the project?
- Within the department or institution? Within your academic discipline?
- Are you following it?
3.What steps will be taken to protect privacy, security, confidentiality, intellectual property or other rights?
- Who controls it (e.g., PI, student, lab, HKUST, the funder)?
- Is it written down somewhere who controls it, or who controls it for what purposes?
- Are there any special privacy or security requirements (e.g., personal data, high-security data)?
- Are there any embargo periods to uphold?
4. If you allow others to reuse your data, how will the data be accessed and shared?
- Any sharing requirements (e.g., funder data sharing policy)?
- Audience? Who can use it now? Who can use it later?
- When will you publish it and where?
- Are there any special tools or software needed to work with the data?
5.How will the data be archived for preservation and long-term access?
- How long should it be kept (e.g., 3-5 years, 10-20 years, permanently)?
- What file formats? Are they long-lived?
- Do I want to store it at
or in a subject-based data repository?
- Who will maintain my data for the long-term?
