In an online training course, Marte De Leeuw (KU Leuven) shared some important things to know about Research Data Management. Read the interview we had with Marte.
About
The RESILIENCE D2.4 Data Management Plan was recently published and is still quite new to the various workers in RESILIENCE and ITSERR. That was the reason for giving this introductory training course. More or less the same counts for Marte De Leeuw. She recently joined the KU Leuven team and jumped right into the deep end by showing the RESILIENCE team around in the world of Research Data Management and Open Science.
After the online training session, we had the pleasure of talking with Marte about a few quotes from her presentation. What is behind these quotes?
Quotes
Quote 1: Knowledge is a universal right
Marte: “UNESCO states that education is a basic human right and believes that equal and universal access to information is a key pillar in building inclusive knowledge societies. This is something that strongly resonates with me, which is why I love that it is also one of the core values of RESILIENCE. The statement ‘Access to scientific knowledge is a universal right’ is written in the opening paragraph of our Open Science Policy and is supported by many of RESILIENCE’s guidelines outlined in the Data Management Plan.”
Quote 2: ARGOS is your best friend
Marte: “Being quite new to the field of Academic Research and Research Data Management, I had never read or written a Data Management Plan before starting at LIBIS. In those first weeks working on RESILIENCE, tools like ARGOS helped me gain a lot of knowledge really fast. One of the most important things I have learned over the course of my career is that you shouldn’t re-invent the wheel. There are already a lot of great resources out there and sometimes the best thing you can do, is find and use them. Shining light on those existing resources is an important part of what we at RESILIENCE try to achieve for the community of the study on religion.”
Quote 3: Do not store your data on a local device
Marte: “I think we have all at one point experienced that heart-stopping moment when suddenly our device shuts down when you haven’t saved that Important Document for at least an hour. Or worse than that: your device gets stolen. This used to be a major issue, but it doesn’t have to be anymore. There are many trustworthy and safe storage solutions these days like OneDrive or SharePoint that enable you to store all your data in the cloud. On top of safeguarding all your important documents, it is also much easier to share files with others without having to constantly email back-and-forth.”
Quote 4: Why should one think about a Data Management Plan before starting doing research?
Marte: “I will answer this question by asking one of my own. Would you simply start building a house without first doing your research and drawing a plan where you go over all the technical, financial and practical details like the resources you will need, how you will get them and so on? Similarly, writing a DMP forces you to think about how you will handle, collect, create and manage your data and thus vastly improves the efficiency and quality of your eventual research. It is only logical to start working on this plan beforehand and then update or adjust throughout your research cycle.”
Thank you for the interview, Marte!
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Marte De Leeuw is the enthusiastic new Project Manager Innovation at LIBIS (KU Leuven). As a former software developer, she has a broad technical background that she now happily utilises in a more high-level role. Seeing how she loves connecting with people from all over the world and across many different disciplines, participating in international projects like RESILIENCE is like a dream come true.