
Writing a data management plan: documentation and metadata
This unit introduces you to the concept of documentation and metadata.
After completing this unit you will:
- Understand why documenting your research data is important.
- Know why and when to use metadata.
- Use the information featured in this unit to contribute to research data management best practice.
While digital data by definition are machine-readable, understanding their meaning is a job for human beings. The importance of documenting your data during the collection and analysis phase of your research cannot be underestimated, if your research is going to be part of the scholarly record.
- Help yourself: You may be on intimate terms with your dataset while you are collecting and analysing it, but the chances that you will still remember that the variable "sglmemgp" means single member of group, for example, after a few months, a year, or more are slim.
- Help others: There are many reasons other people may want to examine or use your data - to understand your findings, to verify your findings, to review your submitted publication, to replicate your results, to design a similar study, or even to archive your data for access and re-use.