Research Data Management

Toronto Metropolitan University Library provides services to help you with Research Data Management (RDM). Managing your data throughout the life of a research project may save you time and effort overall. Thinking about organization, storage and security at the beginning of a project can make it easier to work with your data later on and may also help you to meet privacy requirements. Archiving and sharing data can help to reduce duplication of efforts, improve open science, help you meet funder or journal requirements and has even been shown to increase research impact. You can use Data Management Planning as a RDM starting point. 

The Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy (March 2021) was launched to support Canadian research excellence by promoting sound RDM and data stewardship practices. This policy is not an open data policy.

There are three pillars to the policy: 

1. Institutional Strategies: By March 1, 2023, research institutions subject to this requirement must post their RDM strategies and notify the agencies when they have been completed.
2. Data Management Plans: By spring 2022, the agencies will identify the initial set of funding opportunities subject to the DMP requirement. The agencies will pilot the DMP requirement in targeted funding opportunities before this date.
3. Data Deposit: After reviewing the institutional strategies and in line with the readiness of the Canadian research community, the agencies will phase in the deposit requirement.
   1. CIHR-funded researchers: Since January 1, 2008, recipients of CIHR funding have had to comply with the limited data deposit requirements included in the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. They must continue to comply with these requirements, which are specific to bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data.

For more information about the policy and the requirements, including tools and guidance, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions

Some journals and publishers have data sharing policies and will require you to share your data as a condition of publication.

See below for some examples of publisher data sharing policies: 

• PLOS ONE - Data Availability 
• Nature - Availability of Data
• Frontiers - Materials and data policies

Typically, these policies can be found in the "Information for Authors" or "Author Guidelines" sections of the journal's website. Some journals may recommend specific data repositories. If you have any questions about selecting a data repository, please contact the RDM Librarian at nmulvaney@torontomu.ca 

The TMU Library is here to provide RDM assistance.  We are available to help you with Data Management Planning, curating your datasets and selecting a data repository. Please contact Research Data Management Librarian Nora Mulvaney at nmulvaney@torontomu.ca for more information.