Managing your research data

As a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, you can use the solutions available both locally and centrally. In the sections below, we link to the Staff Pages for comprehensive information on the different parts of the process and the central support available, and describe the support provided by the Faculty.

Planning and collecting

Thinking about data management and how it should be organised early in the process can save a lot of time and make the research process smoother. You may have requirements from funders or others to consider. You might, for example, structure information in a data management plan.

Comprehensive information on planning and collecting research data is available on the Staff Pages

It is important to think about how to handle personal data. The faculty's operational data protection coordinator is always ready to answer research-related questions.

Read more about personal data management and data protection

Storing and organising

It is important that data is stored securely throughout the entire research process. As a researcher, you must prevent unauthorised access to your data, and you must ensure that data is backed up and does not disappear. Different types of data may require specific measures, for example if you are working with personal data, sensitive data or very large volumes of data. 

Comprehensive information on the storage solutions offered by the University can be found on the Staff Pages

All researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences can use the secure transcription tool provided at the Department of Psychology. 

Transcription tool offer

Analysing and processing

Comprehensive information on analysing and processing research data is available on the Staff Pages

The Faculty's Methods Centre offers courses on various analysis programmes, and you can also contact the two research engineers at the Faculty.

Courses within the Skill School framework

Lund Social Science Methods Centre

The Methods Centre’s research engineers

Sharing and making accessible

Several platforms and services for sharing research data are available to researchers. It is important to choose the right place so that your research reaches the right audience and follows the applicable standards and requirements.

Comprehensive information on sharing and making research data accessible is available on the Staff Pages

If you want to make data available to others, contact the faculty data steward to find out more about how you can do this.

Archiving and preserving

Research documentation must be registered and archived in accordance with Swedish law. This is to be done at the higher education institution, since it is a public authority. Regardless of the data in question, it is important that it is given a thorough and structured description so that it can be understood in the future.

Comprehensive information on archiving and preserving research data is available on the Staff Pages

The Faculty has a specific disposal and preservation plan for research documents, specifying what is to be preserved and how.

Plan for the disposal and preservation of research documents within the Faculty of Social Sciences (PDF, new tab)

Support

You can always contact the faculty data steward with your questions about research data management to get a direct answer or referral to someone who can help. There is also a central support function (staffed by all data stewards, research support librarians and archivists at the University) to which you can send your questions. See the contact box for more information. 

You are also welcome to submit suggestions and ideas for research data-related support that would help you as a researcher. This could be the purchase of software or tools, better information on the website or anything else you may be thinking about.