Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDe Jager, Karinen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorKoopman, Margaret Marieen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-10T06:15:13Z
dc.date.available2015-08-10T06:15:13Z
dc.date.issued2015en_ZA
dc.description.abstractResearchers produce large amounts of data during their research investigations and have a variety of interventions for the management of these data. It has not been the responsibility of academic institutions to manage research data, this responsibility has resided with the researchers and their research units. This investigation attempted to understand how pre-digital, early digital and current digital research data in the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Cape Town had been and is being managed, if researchers had archived any of these data and what their opinions were on sharing their research data. Long-term ecological data are an important component of research in the Biological Sciences Department as researchers wish to understand ecosystem changes such as climate change, the spread of alien species and the impact of humans on land and marine exploitation. It is consequently critical that research data, past and present are properly managed for future research so that meaningful management decisions can be made. Research Data Management and the Research Life Cycle are phrases that are very much in the literature at present as librarians and university administrators grapple with the task of implementing data policies and data repositories. The literature review revealed that although the University of Cape Town may be a somewhat behind other international institutions in engaging with Research Data Management and repositories, investigations have been ongoing in other parts of the world and in the international community the groundwork has already been done. Research data have been the preserve of researchers and they are reluctant to give up control of their hard-earned data, usually the result of hours spent on funding applications, and field or laboratory work. Data sets of sufficient quantity and quality to answer research questions can take a researcher a lifetime to accumulate and they understandably do not wish to make these openly available without the insurance that their work will be acknowledged. The findings of this research project revealed that in the absence of systematic data management initiatives at institutional level, researchers had preserved many long-term data sets and in some instances were archiving with international repositories specific to their data types. The findings resulted in a range of suggested interventions for the support of Research Data Management at the University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationKoopman, M. M. (2015). <i>Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13656en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationKoopman, Margaret Marie. <i>"Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13656en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationKoopman, M. 2015. Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Koopman, Margaret Marie AB - Researchers produce large amounts of data during their research investigations and have a variety of interventions for the management of these data. It has not been the responsibility of academic institutions to manage research data, this responsibility has resided with the researchers and their research units. This investigation attempted to understand how pre-digital, early digital and current digital research data in the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Cape Town had been and is being managed, if researchers had archived any of these data and what their opinions were on sharing their research data. Long-term ecological data are an important component of research in the Biological Sciences Department as researchers wish to understand ecosystem changes such as climate change, the spread of alien species and the impact of humans on land and marine exploitation. It is consequently critical that research data, past and present are properly managed for future research so that meaningful management decisions can be made. Research Data Management and the Research Life Cycle are phrases that are very much in the literature at present as librarians and university administrators grapple with the task of implementing data policies and data repositories. The literature review revealed that although the University of Cape Town may be a somewhat behind other international institutions in engaging with Research Data Management and repositories, investigations have been ongoing in other parts of the world and in the international community the groundwork has already been done. Research data have been the preserve of researchers and they are reluctant to give up control of their hard-earned data, usually the result of hours spent on funding applications, and field or laboratory work. Data sets of sufficient quantity and quality to answer research questions can take a researcher a lifetime to accumulate and they understandably do not wish to make these openly available without the insurance that their work will be acknowledged. The findings of this research project revealed that in the absence of systematic data management initiatives at institutional level, researchers had preserved many long-term data sets and in some instances were archiving with international repositories specific to their data types. The findings resulted in a range of suggested interventions for the support of Research Data Management at the University of Cape Town. DA - 2015 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 T1 - Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town TI - Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13656 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/13656
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationKoopman MM. Data archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC), 2015 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13656en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentLibrary and Information Studies Centre (LISC)en_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherLibrary and Information Studiesen_ZA
dc.titleData archiving, management initiatives and expertise in the Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Townen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMLISen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_hum_2015_koopman_mm.pdf
Size:
4.45 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Masters