How to Manage Research Data. The handbook for the Croatian community

The handbook containing best practices on how to manage research data to make them suitable for sharing and reuse. The handbook was written considering the Croatian infrastructure and the Croatian context in general.

On the one hand there is a growing need for research collaboration and research reproducibility, and on the other hand the infrastructure for research data is becoming increasingly available. All that imposes the expectation that research data, as an important output of the research, must be shared. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a global organization focused on developing the social and technical conditions for open data sharing and reuse, and fostering data-based innovation. As part of the RDA Europe 4.0 project, SRCE - University of Zagreb University Computing Centre become the Croatian national RDA node in 2019. In cooperation with the librarians from the University of Rijeka Library, the University of Split Library, the City and University Library Osijek, and the National and University Library in Zagreb, the handbook for researchers was prepared on how to handle research data for their efficient sharing and reuse.

The handbook provides a comprehensive set of guidelines and recommendations based on research data lifecycle. The content of the handbook provides an overview of key topics in research data management. After the introduction to research data, FAIR principles and benefits of it’s sharing in the first chapter, the research data lifecycle is presented in the second chapter. The next three chapters are exploring typical activities undertaken in data lifecycle from the researcher’s perspective, grouped in three sections: before, during, and after the research. The key activity related to the research data described in the Before the research chapter is development of the data management plan. During the research chapter introduces recommendations and best practices on managing data through the collecting, processing, and analyzing phase, such as file naming conventions, good practices regarding readme files, reliable data storage during the research. Publishing, sharing, and reusing of research data are covered in the last, After the research chapter, providing the guidance on topics such as intellectual property rights, licences, citations and to enable sharing and reusing research data. The most important terms from the handbook are explained in the glossary.

Every chapter of the handbook entails helpful tools to facilitate the management of research data and to ensure good data practices. Therefore, this handbook could be very helpful resource for researchers, students, and librarians to get along with their research from the research data management perspective.