Skip to Main Content

Research Data Management

Recommendations and resources for managing qualitative and quantitative data collected or created in the research process.

There are many options

The Brock library supports the deposit of researcher data into appropriate repositories and archives. We can facilitate deposit of data into one or more of the options below or help you identify a discipline-specific archive. 

Brock University Dataverse (Borealis)

The Dataverse platform makes it easy for researchers to deposit data, create appropriate metadata, and keep track of versions. All data is hosted on Canadian servers, in a secure environment that conforms to industry best practices for maintaining data integrity and longevity.  

Brock researchers may choose to affiliate with the Brock University Dataverse within the Scholars Portal Dataverse. (Note that Brock University's Digital Repository is a distinct entity that houses Brock Master's theses, dissertations, open access papers and more; datasets are better stored in Dataverse)

Check out the brief deposit guide below. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Brock Dataverse Administrator Nicole Stradiotto (nstradiotto@brocku.ca). 

Thematic Data Repositories

There are many discipline-based research data repositories ready to receive researcher data.  Extensive listings of repositories can be found at Re3Data (Registry of Research Data Repositories). 

ICPSR offers data curation, planning, and archiving services for social sciences data, including open access and restricted options. Brock is an ICPSR member instutition.

FRDR - Federated Research Data Repository for Canada

FRDR, The Federated Research Data Repository, is a bilingual publishing platform for sharing and preserving Canadian research, and specifically, it is a custom built for large datasets.

 

How to prepare your data for submission

So, you have chosen a data repository from the list above: what next? It is time to prepare your data for submission. Preparing your data for data means that you are "curating" your datasets. Check out this excellent collection of curation primers which will give you advice about how to prepare your data based on its subject (i.e. archeology), the technology you use (i.e. SPSS, python, excel, etc.) and a variety of other project dimensions (whether a project is highly collaborative, etc).