Exercises: Research Data Management in Collaborative Projects

These exercises are part of the FibReLoop training program for doctoral candidates and are designed to complement the workshop on Research Data Management (RDM). The focus is on developing practical awareness and collaborative skills for managing research data within a multi-partner, international project like FibReLoop.

The exercises aim to: - Encourage reflection on the kinds of data you will generate in your own research, - Identify opportunities and challenges in data sharing and reuse within the consortium, - Develop a shared understanding of good practices in data documentation and metadata.

You will work in small groups and share your findings in short discussions. The slides from the workshop are also available in this repository.

Exercise 1: Evaluating Dataset Documentation

• Time: 15 minutes
• Group size: 3–4 researchers

Goal:

Assess the quality of metadata and documentation in a publicly available dataset. Discuss what makes the dataset easy (or difficult) to understand and reuse.

Instructions:

1. As a group, explore one of the provided public datasets.
2. Use the questions below to guide your evaluation.
3. Prepare to share 1–2 strengths and 1–2 weaknesses you identified.

Datasets:

• Double cantilever beam tests on bi-material joints
• Properties of self-healing thermoplastic polyurethane for printing
• Numerical and experimental study of rail steels
• Wave propagation in mechanical metamaterials
• Coating to enhance fiber-matrix adhesion in C/PPS

Evaluation Questions:

• Clarity: Is it clear what the dataset contains and what it is meant for?
• Structure: Is the data organized in a logical, consistent way?
• Metadata: Are key variables, units, methods, and formats described?
• Documentation: Is there a README or data descriptor? Is it up to date?
• Context: Can someone unfamiliar with the original project understand and use the data?
• Licensing: Is it clear what you are allowed to do with the data?
• Standards: Does the dataset follow any known standards (e.g. naming, file formats, metadata)?

Optional reflection (if time allows):

• If you were to reuse this dataset in your project, what further information would you need?

Exercise 2: Collaborative Data Management Planning

• Time: 30 minutes
• Group size: 3–4 researchers

Goal:

Discuss how the research data generated in your individual projects could be made useful for others in the consortium, and identify requirements for collaborative data management.

Part 1 – Understand Your Data (10–15 min)

Take turns briefly describing the kind of data you expect to generate in your project. Then discuss the following:

• What types of data will you work with? (e.g. numerical, textual, image-based, code, models, etc.)
• What would others in the consortium need from your data to make use of it?
• What data do expect from other researchers?
• Could your data be reused in another partner’s work package or task?
• Are there privacy, IP, or confidentiality issues?

Part 2 – Plan for Collaborative RDM (15–20 min)

Based on your discussion, think together about the requirements for good collaborative data management in the project:

• What file formats would be suitable or should be avoided?
• How should data be structured to support interoperability?
• What kind of metadata should be included to make the data understandable?
• What infrastructure could you use for storage and sharing?
• How will you ensure documentation is clear and up to date?
• Are there standards, templates, or naming conventions you could agree on?

Write down key points or ideas. You’ll be asked to briefly share a few insights with the full group afterward.

Optional prompt (if time allows)

What would help you most when trying to use someone else's data from this project?

License

All workshop materials in this repository — including slides and exercises — are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

You are free to share and adapt the materials, provided that appropriate credit is given.

Citation

If you use or refer to these materials, please cite the repository as follows:

bibtex @misc{Grouve2025-fibreloop-rdm, author = {Wouter Grouve}, title = {Research Data Management Workshop for FibReLoop}, year = {2025}, url = {https://github.com/wjbg/fibreloop}, note = {Slides and exercises for the RDM workshop in the Marie Curie FibReLoop training program}, howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/wjbg/fibreloop}}}