What to do with the data when you finished your research?

After you are finished with your research, there are different options for what to do with the research data. Check in advance which of those options apply to your situation.

  • The data you worked with may be used by others. For example by another student or a researcher, if you did you research as part of a Professorship or Living Lab (IWP) assignment. In this case, it is important to prepare and curate the data for re-use.
  • If the data won't be use by someone else, you will hand over the files to your school. They will archive the data temporarily.

In both cases, it is vital that you remove all personal copies from your devices, e.g. laptop or USB stick. Don't forget to remove the files from the trash bin on your devices as well. 

Before you share the data with others or before you transfer the data to your school, anonymize or pseudonymize the data if possible.

Preparing research data for re-use

If you conduct your research for a Professorship or Living Lab (IWP) assignment, there is a possibility that others (students or researchers) will also use parts of the data for further research. To facilitate this, it is important to provide sufficient information about the data you worked with: this is called the metadata of the research data. The richer the descriptions provided to the data are, the easier it is for another (student) researcher to understand and use the data for further research. 

 

Discuss with your supervisor whether the data will be used by others. If this is the case, the following metadata are relevant: 

  • Descriptive metadata, such as authors, title, summary, date
  • Contextual metadata, such as location, time, method of data collection
  • Description of the different data types
  • A readme file which describes how the folders and files are related to each other and where you can find which kind of information
  • Information about missing data or changes in the data
  • Who is allowed or not allowed to access the data
  • Contact details of the person who created the data files 

Handing over to Hanze UAS

After your graduation, you are obliged to hand over a digital copy of your thesis to Hanze UAS, according to the student charter, article 3.18 on Copy Rights. You can find more information about the student charter, including the document itself, at Myhanze.nl. The graduation assignment includes both the thesis and the research data and related documentation such as informed consent forms and empty surveys.

 

The documents should be anonymized or pseudonymized, if possible. It is important to remove all personal copies from your devices.  

 

There are situations when handling over the data to your school is not allowed, for example if you use (confidential) company data and signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Contact your supervisor if you are not sure what applies to your situation.

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