News Archive

UWA's Research Data Online is a new service for managing and documenting your datasets in a safe and secure environment. It is a powerful tool, provided by Information Services (IS) to help both the University and the individual researcher to store and share information about research data, and to make datasets readily accessible for reuse.

Mary White, Project Manager, Projects and Performance in IS, said the service would also help to increase the world wide visibility of the University's research activities.

"For researchers, it means increased ‘discoverability' and citation because their research will have greater visibility and impact," Ms White said. "Researchers can showcase their work globally through the major search engines and through international catalogues such as Research Data Australia and the new Data Citation Index.

"The impact and value of their research can be based on the quality of their datasets, as well as on their publications. The potential for research collaboration through data sharing is also significantly increased.

"Datasets will be stored and managed in accordance with the strict backup and security environment of UWA's central data store. So, no need to rely on portable hard drives or USBs!"

The Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, the Oceans Institute and The Centre for Rock Art Research are already using the new service.

The Centre for Rock Art's Indigenous Australian Rock Art Data System was showcased at the Research Data Alliance second plenary meeting in Washington DC in September.

Their project was developed with funding from the Australian National Data Service.

It is a repository for the centre's rock art research data collections, and provides contextual information about research grants, associated researchers and other key metadata.

It has improved the ‘maintainability' of archaeology datasets and enabled the Centre to share data with collaborating researchers and the wider research community, and make it available to Indigenous communities.