University of Pittsburgh Library System

Data and code often seem to take on lives of their own, especially over the lifecycle of a research project that involves multiple collaborators. We’re here to assist with data management planning and identifying project management strategies for digital or data-intensive projects.

Services

Support for Writing Data Management Plans (DMPs)

In addition to being a required component of proposals for many funding agencies, a data management plan (DMP) can also help you follow open science best practices. We can assist in identifying appropriate documentation, storage, and data management strategies in order to comply with funder mandates and plan appropriately for your data management and sharing.

We can help you...

• Understand funder data management and sharing policies
• Write a data management plan that meets funder requirements
• Learn to use the DMP Tool – software with built-in DMP templates for various funders and grant programs)
• Ensure your research data and protocols are appropriately documented and managed for research reproducibility and replicability
• Consider privacy and ethical requirements related to research data

Version Control Software

Version control is a software feature or application for tracking all changes in a file over time. While version control is vital for distributed code development, it is also more generally useful for ensuring effective management of research files and document drafts over the life of a project.

We can help you...

• Determine how best to organize your project’s files
• Use appropriate file structure and naming conventions
• Create a a comprehensive data storage and recovery plan
• Learn to use git for version control
• Manage data and code in GitHub or other git repositories

Data Storage, Preservation, and Sharing

Whether you need guidance on data storage platforms available at Pitt or have data and code that are ready to share, we are available to help you sort through your options.

We can help you...

• Create effective documentation and metadata to make your data or code more discoverable and reusable (e.g., data dictionaries and README files)
• Find repositories suitable for the long-term preservation of your data or code
• Deposit data or code in D-Scholarship@Pitt
• License your data or code for reuse
• Assign digital object identifiers (DOIs) to your datasets to ensure persistent access and proper citation
• Understand best practices for data citation to increase the impact and visibility of your research

Guidance on Digital Project Design and Digital Project Management

Planning a digital project or managing a complex research collaboration can be challenging. We can recommend resources for project planning and consult on managing your research materials throughout the lifecycle of a digital project.

We can help you...

• Design a project charter that outlines realistic timelines and deliverables
• Develop a digital sustainability plan
• Identify available software, resources, and workflows for digital project management
• Create a project website

For Instructors

Would you like to introduce your students to resources for organizing their research materials, or to develop a course activity or assignment related to creating a project website? We provide curriculum support in a variety of ways for arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM courses. Request a teaching consultation or class workshop related to any of our Data Management or Digital Project Management support areas by filling out the ULS instruction contact form.

We can help instructors...

• Introduce students to git + GitHub for version control
• Identify learning objectives related to data management
• Create a digital assignment or classroom activity
• Plan a Digital Scholarship & Publishing class visit or customized workshop

Read more about Digital Scholarship and Publishing Instruction.

Recommended Resources

Research Guides

• Data Management
• Data Sharing
• Web Development for Scholarly Projects and Portfolios

Specialized Software and Hardware

The Hillman Digital Scholarship Lab offers a range of specialized software to support data wrangling and preparation, including:

• git + GitHub (version control tools for tracking changes to data and code)
• Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet application that offers functionalities for data entry, cleaning, and basic analysis)
• OpenRefine (open-source software for cleaning and transforming tabular data)
• Python (offers libraries that support data manipulation such as Pandas and NumPy)
• R + RStudio (offers packages that are useful for data cleaning and transformations such as dplyr and tidyr)

DMP Tool is an additional web-based application that enables researchers to create and share Data Management Plans; it includes built-in templates tailored to specific funder requirements. Members of the Pitt community can access DMP Tool using Pitt Passport log-in.

Library Events

The Digital Scholarship and Publishing team offers public workshops and instruction sessions by request. Upcoming events can be viewed here. We also facilitate communities of practice and host special events related to Data Management and Digital Project Management.

International Love Data Week is an annual celebration each February that connects researchers to data-related events and resources around the world. Hosted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), each year events are organized by participating institutions around a particular theme, encouraging us to reflect on ways that research data are collected and shared as well as ways we teach and implement best practices for working with research data. The ULS often hosts related workshops and special events throughout February – upcoming events can be viewed here!