Case study titles and abstracts

Research Data Management: Benefits and Data reuse case studies

Introduction

Research Data Management (RDM) is an overarching term encompassing the organisation, storage, and documentation of data generated during research projects. RDM deals with the organisation and curation of active research data, with its day-to-day management and use, and with its long-term preservation.
RDM is an important practice for both institutions and individual researchers. Data supporting results should be made available and preserved so as to allow its reuse and the verification of published research. Several other benefits can arise from the implementation of RDM, including increased citations, increased research collaborations, or increased visibility. Today, data has to be managed not only for preservation purposes, but also to fulfil the requirements of most research funders.
Although RDM has been around for a while, the above benefits are usually described qualitatively and the lack of a solid body of evidence makes advocacy difficult. We have sought to fill this gap by using case studies to present a rich and varied picture of the impacts underpinned by RDM.
###Spread of disciplines
The case studies assembled here come from a wide range of research fields. Due to inherent differences between disciplines, the benefits of RDM become apparent in different ways. They are more tangible in certain fields, and more abstract in others. Nonetheless, the case studies demonstrate that RDM is a worthwhile activity for all institutions and researchers.
The examples below mostly involve large data management initiatives, as these are more likely to show the wide reach of the benefits of RDM. However, we would like to stress that even smaller data management efforts can have an impact. Unfortunately, this can be very difficult to track, as an individual researcher reusing data from other individual researchers is often lost in a sea of information. Similarly, impact sometimes cannot be traced to a specific source: in some studies, clear evidence of the impact of RDM is available, but they point to a whole repository rather than to a single study or dataset.
###Enablers of impact from RDM
The effective implementation of RDM requires both cultural change and specific data skills. This makes its dissemination and practical realisation difficult and is the main obstacle to the above-mentioned benefits. It is, therefore, desirable to examine the RDM environment to investigate its enablers and what has worked historically to encourage future data curation and reuse.
Our research into the benefits or RDM led us to discovering some of the circumstances and situations that facilitate it, along with some of the reasons why this practice should be pursued. A summary of our findings is as follows:

Open licensing (e.g., in the case of computer code and algorithms) is essential to allow crowd-sourced improvements.
Data repositories and infrastructures are among the most significant enablers of impact: without them, very few of the impact case studies below would have been possible.
Collaborations between international bodies or organisations strongly promote data re-use, especially in fields where it was not possible for a single player to take charge. These collaborations create the right environment for sharing and re-use of research data: cultural change is encouraged along with the use of joint infrastructures at a national or international level.
The impact of RDM is normally seen after a long time, when, i.e., after has been produced, curated, maintained, and reused. Thus, there is a need for sustained investment in this field, as benefits cannot be seen immediately.
Aggregation of data and digitisation of documents are key to encouraging the development of digital humanities. These initiatives often arise from the collaboration between museums, research libraries, and universities. When data that was spread between several sources (e.g., many different books/articles) or held in obsolete formats was organised and analysed through sound RDM, hidden findings could be uncovered.
###Presentation format
The case studies are grouped into Long Form—more detailed with abstracts etc.— and Short Form. In all cases key information is presented in a table after the text.

Long-form case studies


Title	1: Neurodegeneration and Dementia Research
Subtitle	Leveraging data from cohort studies to accelerate medical progress
Abstract	Dementia and neurodegenerative diseases affect both individuals and society as a whole. However, neither cures nor treatments are available at the moment. The Dementias Platforms UK collaboration aims to turn dementia research into treatments as quickly as possible, to both improve people's lives and decrease the socioeconomic cost related to these types of diseases
Keywords	dementia; Alzheimer; cohort studies
Research subject area	MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
Type of RDM impact/benefit	Efficiency in research and data re-use (e.g., reduce duplication of effort); Socio/Economic impact; Methodological impact (e.g., new approaches developed)
Summary Impact Type	Impact on health and wellbeing
Facts and figures	850,000 people with Dementia, £53 million project (DPUK), £6.9 million project financed using DPUK
Maturity of the initiative/data source	Recent (<5 years)
Year (e.g., first data release, first output, year of impact)	2014
Link	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.818367


Title	18: Supporting Science and Industry by Sharing Computer Code
Subtitle	Sharing software as a form of research data
Abstract	Sharing software is not as common as sharing other types of research data, however, it is sometimes very impactful. The Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software in the field of neuroimaging is an example of how sharing computer code can lead to far-reaching effects. In this case, making the code public allowed the creation of a new field of study and led the software to become the leader in the sector. In addition, thanks to the licensing chosen, some companies were able to exploit the code to create derivative products, which are generating substantial income, while major pharmaceutical companies are using it in the field of drug research.
Keywords	software; code; algorithms
Research subject area	MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
Type of RDM impact/benefit	Socio/Economic impact; Methodological impact (e.g., new approaches developed)
Summary Impact Type	Economic; Technological; Health
Facts and figures	64% of users in the field use the software; €5,000 for each license (software derived from sharing);
Maturity of the initiative/data source	Long-standing (5+ years)
Year (e.g., first data release, first output, year of impact)	1991
Link


Title	24: Surfing Gravitational Waves
Subtitle	Understanding gravity and Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity
Abstract	Since 2002, the LIGO experiment has been running and collecting data in the domain of astrophysics. This very large facility created over 1 petabyte of information, which required management for several years. This effort has allowed researchers to confirm the existence of gravitational waves, ripples in space time hypothesised by Einstein. In addition, data from the experiment is being used to produce peer-reviewed publications and additional information on past detections, such as visuals, audio, and other media.
Keywords	gravitational waves; relativity
Research subject area	PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Type of RDM impact/benefit	Reproducibility; Efficiency in research and data re-use (e.g., reduce duplication of effort)
Summary Impact Type
Facts and figures	111,000 news mentions; Over 1 petabyte of data
Maturity of the initiative/data source	Long-standing (5+ years)
Year (e.g., first data release, first output, year of impact)	1994
Link


Title	25: Art From The Comfort Of Your Chair
Subtitle	Aggregating arts metadata to power a digital museum
Abstract	Educational institutions, museums, and other organisations hold a wealth of information on paintings, sculpture, and artefacts. This has historically been kept private or indexed locally, however, the Europeana project aims to aggregate metadata in the field of arts and make it publicly accessible. Over 3,000 organisation contribute to the portal, which hosts more than 54 million records from across Europe. The Europeana project has been using its material to promote creative thinking in a number of disciplines and led to the creation of a web exhibition platform for institutions holding art. In addition, Europeana tracks research arising from its data through the Europeana Treasures blogpost series.
Keywords	cultural heritage; digitisation
Research subject area	LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
Type of RDM impact/benefit	Efficiency in research and data re-use (e.g., reduce duplication of effort); Socio/Economic impact
Summary Impact Type	Technological; Cultural
Facts and figures	Collaboration of 3,000 institutions; 54,364,816 artworks, artefacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe;
Maturity of the initiative/data source	Long-standing (5+ years)
Year (e.g., first data release, first output, year of impact)	2008
Link


Title	14: Qualitative Data in Many Formats, Archived Online: Tate Encounters
Keywords	qualitative data; museum
Research subject area	STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY
Type of RDM impact/benefit	Socio/Economic impact
Summary Impact Type	Societal; Cultural
Facts and figures	300 student questionnaires; 200 student essays on Tate Modern and Tate Britain; 12 student workshops; 12 in depth student research projects; 5 extended participant family edited ethnographic films; 38 Tate staff interviews and interviews with 72 participants through the Research in Process events at Tate Britain;
Maturity of the initiative/data source	Long-standing (5+ years)
Year (e.g., first data release, first output, year of impact)	2010
Link

Research Data Management: Benefits and Data reuse case studies

Introduction

Long-form case studies

Short-form case studies