Research Guides: Biology: Research Data Management

Need help with data? Ask your librarian!

Data management and publication is an important part of the research process, and the Library can assist you throughout your data's life cycle. Here's just a few of the services I can provide:

Review of the Data Management Plan (DMP) section of your grant application
Instruction in best practices in file naming and organization for your lab group
Identification of existing metadata standards that meet your research needs
Access to APIs for metadata harvesting from major literature databases
Comparison of data repositories for archiving and sharing your completed data sets

...and, of course, I can refer you to colleagues in the Library who specialize in visualization, geographic information systems (GIS), digital preservation, and more! To start a conversation about data, email me at samarti@umich.edu. And be sure to check out OVPR's Research Data Stewardship Portal for more resources, as well as these data management workshop recordings from my library colleagues!

Research Data Stewardship Policy

The Research Data Stewardship Policy - Standard Practice Guide (SPG) 303.06 sets the expectations for responsible management of research data—addressing ownership, sharing, and retention—to uphold research transparency, rigor, meet sponsor requirements, and serve the University of Michigan’s mission of academic research. Research data include recorded materials (e.g., data, code, metadata) used to validate or reproduce findings, and must be retained internally for a minimum of seven years after project closeout or publication, with exceptions only where funder or contractual agreements specify otherwise. The policy also emphasizes proper stewardship and, where possible, public sharing of research data in accordance with FAIR principles.