Collect, store and analyse
It is good research practice to document the methods, how data is collected, processed and what forms of analysis that have been performed in your research.
How you do that is affected by many factors, but documenting the process in a structured way have advantages such as:
- It will be easier for you to reuse your own data and methods in the future
- Data, source code and methods will also be reusable by others
- Check KTH’s guidelines on managing research data and comply easier with funders’ and publishers' requirements.
Some factors that will require more planning of how to manage data in active research is if you:
- Work with very large datasets
- Work with very complex datasets, i.e collected from mulitple sources in various file formats.
- Collect and process sensitive data
- Data is shared between multiple people and organisations.
You can read more information about finding data, processing, and storing it as well as working with data in collaborative research in the sections below.
Still have questions? Contact us at researchdata@kth.se.
Find and collect data
Repositories
Most researchers already have the habit of looking for existing publications for existing knowledge. There are now an increasing number of repositories for scientific data in different domains where you can explore existing data as well. Browse through re3data.org to find relevant repositories for your research, or explore KTH's own data repository.
Other open data-sources
Since you are reading this via a web-browser, you are already aware of this thing called internet that is full of data and links to data sources. When using freely available data sources, don’t forget to note where you retrieved your data and be aware of potential problems with traceability that may affect reproducibility of your research. Library catalogs is often a good entry point to collections of content that have been subjected to some quality control as well as databases with licensed content.
Requesting access to data from other parties or using licensed databases as a source
Many data-sources are accessible only after accepting certain conditions in order to get access such as:
- Terms in an agreement with collaborators
- Licensing conditions for access and usage of data from commercial databases
- Registers or academic databases with sensitive data that require that you have a special permit or is registered as a user before you can access data.
The library have access to many licensed data-sources that you can find in the library database list. You can also contact researchdata@kth.se to get support on how to find registrys and academic databases.
Generate data using research facilities such as testbeds and research infrastructures
There are many types of research facilities worldwide that can be accessed for researchers in different scientific field where you can access advanced instruments and equipment that generate data.
A list of existing national state-funded research infrastructures in Sweden.
Within the Unite! University network you can browse for accessible research infrastructures within the university alliance also at partner universities.
Generating data in your own lab from instruments or devices
Much data is generated by research instruments, sensors and other devices set-up at KTH. If you need help with connecting devices to KTH network, contact it-support@kth.se for further help and advice.
Analyse and store data in active research
Whenever you work with data in a digital way, data is stored somewhere. In active research data can be stored in different locations depending on if you at work rely on:
- a local drive or local device
- a centrally provided cloud filesharing service such as KTH OneDrive
- KTH Extended Data Storage
- storage and services provided by a research infrastructure
- services provided by collaboration partner in a research project
- cloud storage included in analytics software
- open access web storage solutions
Different types of restrictions may apply that affect what processing and storage solutions that are suitable to use. Some storage solutions may be too slow or too expensive for your use case, while legal restrictions narrow down the choice for software and storage if you work with sensitive data or if you are bound by specific clauses in an agreement. When working with sensitive data, restrictions also apply on how you work and share data – see more on recommendations for working with sensitive data.