Mark Whiteley, Climate Action Scope 3 Data Officer in the Sustainability & Space Team, writes a guest blog on his experience of creating Data Management Plans for non-research purposes and why they are helpful.
So why did I make the effort to write a Data Management Plan?
Well, if I was not careful, my (data) work at the University could quickly become chaotic. I calculate the University’s carbon footprint using almost 25 data sources, ranging from small spreadsheets to large databases. Each of these sources have a wide variety of data that must be collated and manipulated every 12 months. As the sole person responsible for this work, the data was sitting exclusively on my University laptop and Bath OneDrive.
It was also clear that if I left the Uni at short notice (for whatever reason!), it would leave behind a complete mess. My replacement would have to somehow understand my inner workings or start from scratch. Neither of which I would wish on a colleague.
I decided to replace my unformulaic, memory-dependent approach with a formal system to, if nothing else, standardise how our carbon footprint data is managed. What I needed was the discipline to ensure consistency and quality. I needed a robust document with guidelines that:
- defined where on SharePoint the data is located
- created an intuitive and user-friendly folder structure
- applied a standard naming terminology
Using and adapting existing documentation supports organisational consistency and saves time, so I started looking into the Library’s Data Management Plan (DMP) template. DMPs have been used in academia for a long time, enabling researchers to think through documentation, legal and ethical issues, and how best to keep their work accessible and their data safe. Significant adjustments still had to be made to make it relevant to my role in professional services, but it was an excellent starting point. And with the Library’s guidance and review service, the final template was produced and populated.
It wasn’t always easy to implement it either, as I am now starting to gather my seventh year of data, but I am already noticing the improvements in my work. For example, I am now using the team’s SharePoint to save the data and am naming files consistently so that it is clear what they refer to and which year they are from.
I believe anyone working with even a hint of complexity to their data would benefit from using a DMP themselves. I sometimes ask myself whether creating the DMP was a worthwhile exercise, and I always come back with an emphatic “yes”. I accept that I should have been doing it all anyway, but I know inherently that the DMP is the catalyst for moving intent into action and then ensuring that the momentum is maintained.
I am very pleased that both Steph and Alice have taken this on and have adapted this approach for wider University use. I thank them and hope it proves valuable to others.
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