Agustin Petroni is EfD’s new full-time Data Coordinator. He will support all the researchers and centers in the network in matters regarding data management. This service will be very valuable, not only for the network but for everyone who benefits from research data being well organized and easily available.
Data management is a set of standards for how to organize data in a study or project, from the planning stage, structuring, and processing of data, to the analysis and finally the archiving. The purpose of data management is to make data accessible and understandable for yourself and others, and reusable for students and other researchers.
Will reach out to all centers
EfD collaborates with the Swedish National Data Service (SND) and the Gothenburg University Library in providing a Data Access Unit (DAU) to support EfD researchers in making their data available online.
“Initially I will reach out to our centers and learn more about how they work today, what their challenges are and what kind of support they need,” says Agustin Petroni.
Better access, security, and transparency
The role of data management is becoming increasingly important in the academic world for many reasons. For one thing, it’s a way of reducing replication problems and biases. Another important aspect is transparency. Most research is funded by government agencies, so it’s a legitimate requirement that the results are transparent.
For research institutions, data management is a way of keeping track of the research produced at the institution, and students can have access to the database and produce other studies with the same set of data.
It’s also beneficial for the individual researcher who, if he or she follows the data management guidelines, can avoid loss of data due to for instance hardware failure.
“Modern librarian”
“I see my role as a sort of librarian for the modern academic world, a support function for the researchers and others who have an interest in our data,” says Agustin Petroni.
“ Of course there are researchers in our network who are already using our DAU, but I’m convinced we can make great improvements by working together, more systematically.”
More citations and credibility
Agust Petroni emphasizes that publishing your data is not just about aligning with regulations and the global trend.
”It is also something that will give the researchers more visibility, for instance, more citations and credibility. And in the long run, more productivity,” he says.