A central aspect of the Research Data Management (RDM) cycle is the secure and structured storage of data to ensure their integrity, accessibility, and reusability.
What storage options does HSLU provide or recommend?
How can I protect myself against data loss?
UTo protect yourself from data loss, it is essential to perform regular backups of your data on different storage media. The 3-2-1 rule is a useful guideline:
Create three copies of your data, store two of them on different types of media, and keep one copy in an external location.
Access, write, and delete permissions should be defined according to storage medium and responsibility. This ensures clear control over data access and prevents unauthorized modifications or deletions.
Following this approach minimizes the risk of losing valuable data due to technical failures, human error, or other unforeseen events — for example, the case at Pixar, where nearly all data from Toy Story 2 was lost due to a storage error:
Pixar Deleted Toy Story 2: How a Baby Saved the Sequel (youtube.com)
Why do my research results need metadata?
Metadata facilitate the discoverability of research data. They also allow for the comparison of datasets from different sources, which is particularly valuable in interdisciplinary or large-scale research projects.
Standardized documentation further supports the execution of meta-analyses, in which research results from various studies are aggregated and analyzed to gain broader insights. Thus, metadata contribute significantly to the linking and reuse of data in scientific research.
Which metadata should be included with my research results?
Metadata should ideally include the following information:
- Content metadata: Author, title, keywords, subject
- Methodological metadata: Research design, data collection method
- Formal metadata: File type, file format, file size
- Administrative/technical metadata: Date of provision, date of modification, editor, system requirements
- Relational metadata: References to contextual materials (e.g., transcripts), literature
- Identifying metadata: e.g., Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- Legal metadata: Level of anonymization, access conditions, licenses
For an overview of metadata standards across disciplines, see http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadata-standards