Research Data Management (RDM): Resources

File Naming/Formatting

Princeton University Library file naming practices and data formatting

Data Anonymization

ARX Data Anonymization Tool  "ARX is a comprehensive open source software for anonymizing sensitive personal data. It supports a wide variety of (1) privacy and risk models, (2) methods for transforming data and (3) methods for analyzing the usefulness of output data" (Data Anonymization Tool, para., 1).

Metadata/documentation standards

• Darwin Core, " Darwin Core is a standard maintained by the Darwin Core maintenance group. It includes a glossary of terms intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing identifiers, labels, and definitions. Darwin Core is primarily based on taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, samples, and related information" (para., 1).
• Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), "The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an international standard for describing the data produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences. DDI is a free standard that can document and manage different stages in the research data lifecycle, such as conceptualization, collection, processing, distribution, discovery, and archiving. Documenting data with DDI facilitates understanding, interpretation, and use -- by people, software systems, and computer networks. Use DDI to Document, Discover, and Interoperate!" (para., 1).
• CASARAI, "Our work is to actively foster networks of collaboration across the key & diverse stakeholders who collect information from researchers during the research life-cycle and to publish standard guidelines and recommendations that enable funders, vendors and research institutions to reduce undue burden" (About, para., 3).
• Digital Curation Centre (DCC) metadata standards, "While data curators, and increasingly researchers, know that good metadata is key for research data access and re-use, figuring out precisely what metadata to capture and how to capture it is a complex task. Fortunately, many academic disciplines have supported initiatives to formalise the metadata specifications the community deems to be required for data re-use. This page provides links to information about these disciplinary metadata standards, including profiles, tools to implement the standards, and use cases of data repositories currently implementing them" (para., 1).

Multidisciplinary repositories

• r3data, Registry of research data repositories.
• Dryad, "The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes research data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a general-purpose home for a wide diversity of data types." (Our Mission, para. 1)
• Figshare, "figshare is a repository where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner." (About, para. 1)

Data Licenses

The two primary sources for data licenses are:

•  Creative Commons (CC), " Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture. We make it easier for people to share their creative and academic work, as well as to access and build upon the work of others. By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world" (What we Do, para., 1).
• Open Data Commons, "Open Data Commons is the home of a set of legal tools to help you provide and use Open Data" (para., 1.)