Experimenting with the Trial of a Research Data Audit: Some Preliminary Findings about Data Types, Access to Data and Factors for Long Term Preservation

Developing systems and services for the effective and efficient management of research data as well as addressing issues around their long term curation is an area of increasing activity in UK Higher Education. This paper discusses some preliminary results from a questionnaire survey, conducted as part of the trial implementation of the Data Audit Framework Methodology at University College London (UCL). Fifty seven (57) academic and research staff from 5 designated departments and an interdisciplinary research centre provided information about the nature of their research and the types of primary research data they produce. The survey explored factors that could impact on access, use and preservation of such data. The preliminary results indicate that researchers recognise the potential usefulness of such data for other researchers as well as their long term value. Retaining primary research data after the end of the funding period and re-using them for initiating further research are practices already acknowledged. However, ownership, copyright and restrictions on access to research data can be hazy areas for academic and research staff and require further investigation, advice and support. The value of primary research data appears to be closely linked to the context within the data which were generated