Data Curation is an Advanced Data Management and Curation service offered by the UNC Research Data Management Core (RDMC). This RDMC Add-on Data Management Service is designed to ensure that datasets housed in data repositories are discoverable, understandable, and usable. Members of the RDMC research data stewardship team work with investigators and project teams to develop and execute data curation workflows for data file packaging and repository ingest that align with standards and best practices for data preservation and data quality.
To learn more about the RDMC Data Curation service, submit a request via the RDMC service portal.
What is data curation?
Data curation refers to the various processes involved in ensuring that data can be discovered, accessed, understood, and used now and into the future. These processes are part of a disciplined practice that considers the technical aspects of data as an object for long-term archival preservation and access--but within the broader context of responsible and ethical conduct of research, scientific rigor and integrity, disciplinary culture and practice, and stakeholder mandates and expectations.
The practice of data curation comprises an exhaustive list of activities that are applied to dataset files based on data type, file format, domain, original and intended uses, and other important factors that determine how data files should be organized, documented, archived, and shared. The diagram below illustrates a typical data curation workflow.
Data curation is a data management activity that should be considered when developing data management plans. When planning for data management, it is important to consider the provisions needed to curate data, especially for data that are large in volume, require specialized hardware or software, contain sensitive information (i.e., protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII)), or are otherwise complex.
The data curator
A data curator is responsible for the execution of the data curation workflow in accordance with standards and best practices for long-term preservation and access.
Data curation standards and best practices
Data Curation Lifecycle
CURATE(D)
FAIR Principles
10 Things
OAIS
Why curate data?
benefits of curating data
RDMC Data Curation Service
what is included
how we assess the scope of work
example
Budgeting for data curation
Data curation is considered by federal funding agencies to be an allowable cost that can be included in the proposal budget.
Budget justification
budget justification boilerplate