UofL Libraries: Data Management: Guides for Beginners

Data Management Guides for Theses and Dissertations

The ETDplus project has published a set of six guidance briefs designed to assist students with data management issues related to their theses and dissertations. These are short "how to" documents written for a student audience, that can be downloaded in PDF and printed easily.

Copyright Guidance Brief
As a researcher in an academic environment, understanding copyright basics can help you to share and protect your work effectively and purposefully. The decisions you make now about copyright will have implications for your work, including how it can be built upon in the future.
Data Organization Guidance Brief
As you develop your research, you will have to consider how to manage and organize the data you’re gathering. The type of research you are doing and the standards of your field(s) will affect your data organization and analysis practices. When you prepare and submit your final work as a thesis or dissertation, earlier decisions you have made about how the data is structured and organized will have implications for how readily others will be able to access and make use (or sense) of your data.
File Formats Guidance Brief
It is important to find a file format, or set of file formats, that helps you complete your research now, and that you can access again in the future. This is true both for your research outputs (what you create) and your research inputs (materials you use in the research process).
Metadata Guidance Brief
The quality of the metadata you provide is key to ensuring the future accessibility and usability of your work.
Storage Guidance Brief
By mindfully planning, choosing, and documenting where you store your digital materials, you can make sure that you and others will have access to them in the future.
Version Control Guidance Brief
Version control (also known as revision control or source control) is the process of managing changes to your files over time. Version control can help you to track your revision history, including when, why, and by whom changes are made.

Acknowledgments

These Guidance Briefs have been produced through a project generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and led by the Educopia Institute, in collaboration with the NDLTD, HBCU Alliance, bepress, ProQuest, and the libraries of Carnegie Mellon, Indiana State, Morehouse, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech.

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Data Management Guides for Theses and Dissertations

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