Finding data can help address two central aspects of RDM. When planning your research, accessing existing data can help identify many associated requirements throughout the lifecycle of your project, including storage, suitable formats, etc. When conducting research, accessing existing data can help answer many research questions, but your ability to use the data will be contingent on licensing and its permitted uses.
Licensed Data
UBC Library licenses high-demand research data and actively participates in the development of platforms for the discovery of open data. If you're looking for existing datasets, contact UBC Library's Research Commons or UBC Okangan's Centre for Scholarly Communication.
Harvesting Data
Some electronic data may be 'harvested' through mining or scraping of online sources or through bulk download of digital objects. Gathering data in this way brings with it ethical, legal, and technical issues that should be considered. UBC Library with the support of UBC Legal can help ensure or clarify if your proposed data harvesting abides by any relevant laws, end-user agreements and similar terms-of-use or license agreements.
Data and AI
Increasingly AI is being used to interact with research data, whether through extraction, synthesis, or modeling. As with harvesting, researchers should ensure that they are in compliance with any agreements, licenses, etc. before feeding data or data sources into AI platforms. UBC Library with the support of UBC Legal can help you address concerns related to the use of AI with research data.
Data Sharing Agreements
Data sharing agreements (DSAs) allow for transfer of data between organizations, such as a health authority, government branch, private company, Indigenous authority, etc. DSAs will generally outline how and under what conditions data may be used, communicated, and redistributed by the researcher.
Support
| Service Area | Unit | Contact | Resource |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed Data | Vancouver UBC Library Okanagan Centre for Scholarly Communication | |
| Open Data | Vancouver UBC Library Okanagan Centre for Scholarly Communication | |
| Data Mining & Data Scraping | Vancouver UBC Library Okanagan Centre for Scholarly Communication | |
| Indigenous Data Protocols | Vancouver Indigenous Research Support Initiative Okanagan Research Facilitation team | |
| Data Sharing Agreements | Innovation UBC | Find a Contact |
Resources
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Data Discovery at UBC | UBC Library's guide for finding and using data and statistics. This guide focuses on data for the social sciences |
| Abacus | UBC's licensed data repository. |
| Lunaris | A scalable, national research data discovery service provided by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada |
| Using Generative AI and LLMs in Research | A guide from the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation on using large language models and generative AI in research |
| Resources for Generative AI at UBC | A series of guides from the Office of the CIO. |