In 2016, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), collectively referred to as the Tri-Agency published a Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management, outlining expectations and responsibilities for research data management within the academic community. This was followed by the introduction of the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy in March 2021. This policy, which aims to promote good research data management and stewardship practices among researchers, made it mandatory, by March 1, 2023, for all post-secondary educational institutions and research hospitals entitled to administer research funds to create and post on their websites their own research data management (RDM) strategy.
This document outlines how Bishop’s University will support its researchers in fulfilling the requirements of the Tri-Agency’s Research Data Management Policy and articulate the University’s commitment to research data management (RDM) at the institutional level.
At Bishop’s, the Institutional Research Data Management Strategy, herein referred to as the RDM Strategy, was drafted by a sub-committee set up by the Senate Research Committee (SRC) and inclusive of members from the SRC, Library and Learning Commons, and Information Technology Services.
The sub-committee drafted and circulated a survey to the University community to assess their knowledge of RDM and obtain feedback in drafting the RDM Strategy.
Once the RDM Strategy has been reviewed and accepted by the SRC, and by Senate, it will be posted on Bishop’s University’s website.
Bishop’s University will endeavor to provide various supports to the research community to achieve RDM goals and requirements by various means, which include, but are not limited to data governance, privacy legislation, publishing requirements, documentation, preservation, storage, security, and training.
To this end, and in compliance with the Tri-Agency policy, Bishop’s University commits to:
a) Creating and posting this institutional RDM strategy.
b) Supporting researchers in using best practices in RDM and aiding with development and submission of data management plans (DMP).
c) Supporting researchers in fulfilling their requirements for data deposit.
This strategy applies to all members of the Bishop’s community including faculty, staff, and students who engage in scholarship, research, and creative endeavors.
The goals and objectives identified in section 6 of this document communicate that Bishop’s University is committed to research excellence, and the associated actions define how it will assist its researchers in fulfilling their research data management obligations.
Research, scholarship, and creative activity are integral to the mission, vision, and values of Bishop’s University. Consequently, the University recognizes the importance of research data and research data management.
The creation and implementation of a successful RDM strategy at Bishop’s University requires the collaboration of many offices and groups, including (but not limited to):
The LLC and ORGS staff are the primary contacts in relation to RDM. While the researchers are responsible for creating data, the LLC (with support from the ORGS) is committed to advising in the areas of collection management and proper deposit of research data with the appropriate repositories. Research Data Management will be tracked by ORGS.
The LLC and ORGS will work in tandem to accomplish the objectives of this strategy and report to the SRC who will oversee the evolution of RDM support to the campus community, and report to ITS, ISSC, the REB, and other appropriate stakeholders as needed.
In consultation with the stakeholders, the Senate Research Committee shall review this document every two years and update as needed.
This strategy is intended to:
Borealis: The Canadian Dataverse repository: A national open data repository that supports open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data. Borealis supports Canadian Academic libraries and research institutions.
CARE: Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics
Data Archiving: the long-term storage of data. Publishing and archiving data is important to preserve scientific information for future research.
Data Deposit: when the research data collected as part of a research project are transferred to a research data repository. Ideally, data deposits will include accompanying documentation, source code, software, metadata, and any supplementary materials that provide additional information about the data, including the context in which it was collected and used to inform the research project. This additional information facilitates curation, discoverability, accessibility, and reuse of the data. "The choice of repository may be guided by disciplinary expectations and the recipient's own judgment, but in all cases the repository must ensure safe storage, preservation and curation of the data." (Tri-Agency RDM Policy Section 3.3) The Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy does not require grant recipients to share their data. However, the agencies do expect researchers to provide appropriate access to the data, where ethical, cultural, legal, and commercial requirements allow, and in accordance with the FAIR principles and the standards of their disciplines.
Data Management Plan (DMP): A written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate over the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.
Data Sharing: The action of providing access to research data. This can happen in a number of ways, including through mediated access, data enclaves, a journal website, or depositing data to a trusted repository.
FAIR: Data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The Tri-Agency supports the FAIR guiding principles for data management and stewardship.
FRDR: Federated Research Data Repository: Supported by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, the FRDR is a bilingual publishing platform for sharing and preserving Canadian research data.
Indigenous Data Sovereignty: The right of each First Nation, Métis, and Inuit community, collective, and organization to govern the collection, ownership, access, and possession of their own data.
Indigenous Research Data: Indigenous data are data involving Indigenous communities, beings, and land, and includes:
ISSC: Indigenous Student Support Centre
ITS: Information Technology Services
LLC: Library Learning Commons
OCAP: First nations principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession. It asserts that first nations have control over the data collection process and that they own and control how that information is used.
ORGS: Office of Research and Graduate Studies
Research Data: As per Research Data Canada’s definition, research data are data that are used as primary sources to support technical or scientific enquiry, research, scholarship, or artistic activity, and that are used as evidence in the research process and/or are commonly accepted in the research community as necessary to validate research findings and results. All other digital and nondigital content have the potential of becoming research data. Research data may be experimental data, observational data, operational data, third party data, public sector data, monitoring data, processed data, or repurposed data. (https://www.rdc-drc.ca/glossary/original-rdc-glossary/)
RDM: Research Data Management. The responsible collection, documentation, storage, sharing, and preservation of the data created or generated as part of a research project. Research Data Repository: a technology-based platform that allows for research data to be deposited & described, stored & archived, shared & published and discovered & reused.
REB: Research Ethics Board.