Sharing research data is central to Open Science, but simply sharing a bunch of unstructured data files without documentation is not useful. Good data management is essential for opening up data to others, and it will also help you and your collaborators understand and re-use your own datasets in the future. In addition, funding agencies and academic institutions are increasingly focusing on this topic, including EUR. Researchers can get advice and support from a team of data stewards that has recently been expanded. Currently, there is a data steward connected to every Erasmus School, available for support and advice on data management.

Two of these data stewards – Nils Arlinghaus (ESHCC & ESPhil) and Eduard Klapwijk (ESSB) – will be the special guests on the fifteenth OSCR ReproducibiliTea journal club, which will take place on April 19th at 15:00 CEST. Nils and Eduard will present the following paper1:

Briney, K., Coates, H., & Goben, A. (2020). Foundational Practices of Research Data Management. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6, e56508. doi: https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e56508

In this paper, ten practices are described, ranging from documentation and file organization to backup plans and archiving. It provides an introduction to best practices that are broadly applicable to different research fields and sorts of data. The different practices described here can be implemented in a step-wise fashion and will help improve data management. Eventually this will benefit every single research project, and will greatly help with transparently reporting the whole data life cycle. During our presentation we will try to connect the described practices to the tools and opportunities that are currently available at EUR.

An invitation via Outlook has been sent to researchers in the OSCR mailing list2. This email includes a link to join the meeting remotely using Zoom. Click on the link, insert the password provided in the invitation mail, and you will join the call.

During the Zoom meeting, please follow these guidelines:

  • wear headphones
  • mute your microphone
  • video is optional (in case of connection issues, you may be asked to turn it off)
  • pay attention to the moderator (which will be Antonio)
  • if you have questions
    • click on the Raise Hand button and the moderator will unmute you; or
    • write down your question in the chat and the moderator will read it
  • avoid talking over each other and make sure that everyone can have their opportunity to speak
  • arrive a few minutes before the beginning of the call, to familiarize with the online environment and solve possible technical issues

Please remember that attendees of every OSCR event (in-person or online) are required to follow our Code of Conduct.

Take care,

Nils Arlinghaus, Eduard Klapwijk, and Antonio Schettino



  1. The paper is also available on our OSF repository.↩︎

  2. If you are not part of the OSCR mailing lists but would like to join, please contact Antonio.↩︎