Last Updated March 14, 2023

Committee Charge

The Research Data Management Policy Committee was charged in May 2022 to define research data and record management, as well as storage standards for research conducted at the University. In the interest of transparency, the Committee will provide regular updates to this webpage throughout the policy development and implementation. The Committee will also seek regular feedback from the University community and will use this webpage to both solicit and share feedback regarding the policy development. 

Committee Scope

The scope of the Committee is to develop a policy that promotes clear and achievable research data management practices to foster sound scientific practices around research data management, retention, access, and sharing. This Committee was established in response to the need for institutional policy that reflects federal and other sponsor requirements, including, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as to emphasize scientific best practices across the University research community. Policy outlining clear data management expectations is also needed to ensure the integrity of research data at Penn State. 

Although the need for a Research Data Management policy is driven by federal and other sponsor requirements, the proposed policy will apply to both funded and unfunded research. The policy will be designed to help all research personnel at Penn State to ensure that research results and data are properly secured, maintained, and accessible so that questions of integrity and reproducibility can be addressed. Many peer institutions are also adapting policies to define the expectations of research data management and sharing. 

Participate In The Development Of the Policy! Feedback Opportunities

The committee would like to collaborate with researchers including faculty, staff, post doctoral scholars and students on this policy. The committee plans to host stakeholder groups. If you have an interest in participating in the stakeholder groups, please contact the co-chairs. 

With input from select stakeholders across the University, the Committee has developed an initial draft of the Research Data Management policy. The Committee held town halls for input and is now seeking input through this feedback form. 

Draft Policy and Guidance 

A recording of the town hall webinar and the webinar slides are available to view. Linked below is the draft policy and draft guidance. The intent of the policy is to focus on general priniciples of data management applicable to a wide variety of fields whereas the guidance seeks to provide details about how to meet the expetations of the policy.

RDMP Draft Policy

Guidance for Managing Research Data

How Does This Impact Research Projects?

This proposed new policy will be designed to promote the use of research data management best practices across disciplines. As the policy is currently in draft, any existing research projects should continue their already determined research data management practices based on practices in their field and sponsor requirements. 

Regarding research data storage, the proposed policy will not specify where researchers will need to store their data, but rather set expectations for data maintenance, retention, access and sharing. 

Key Resources 

The Committee also intends to identify a need for and make recommendations on necessary resources to help the Univeristy community successfully adopt the practices outlined in the Research Data Management Policy. Below are some existing resources related to research data management:

• Libraries Research Data Service 
• Data Management Plan Tutorial 
• Data Management and Human Subjects Research
• NSF Data Management Plan Info 
• NIH Data Sharing Policy 
• Penn State's New NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing webpage
• Checklist for Departing Researchers 
• Data Storage Finder 
• Permitted Research Data Storage

Committee

The Research Data Management Committee includes members across the University. The Co-Chairs for the Committee are Dr. Courtney Karmelita, Assistant Director of Research Quality and Integrity (Office for Research Protections), and Dr. Briana Wham, Data Learning Center Manager/Research Data Librarian, STEM (Libraries). The Committee members include:

• Dr. Guido Cervone, Professor of Geography, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, and Associate Director of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences 

• Mr. Doug Dodson, Research Data Security and Compliance Analyst (Office of the Senior Vice President for Research) 

• Dr. Rick Gilmore, Professor of Psychology (College of the Liberal Arts)

• Mr. Jason Hughes, MBA, Research Informatics Officer (College of Medicine) 

• Ms. Dora Hunter, Director, Clinical Research Office (Penn State Neuroscience Institute)

• Dr. Miranda Kaye, Director, Survey Research Center (SSRI)  

• Mr. Jim Leous, Manager and Research Programmer (Research IT)   

• Ms. Natalie Mansell, Privacy and Compliance Specialist (Office of Information Security)

• Ms. Jodi Mathieu, CIP, IRB Assistant Director (Office for Research Protections)

• Ms. Kris McNitt , Research Security Compliance Data Use Team Lead (Office of Sponsored Programs)

• Mr. Clint Schmidt, J.D., Senior Director, Research Security and Conflict of Interest (Office for Research Protections) 

• Dr. Alicyn Rhoades,, Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies (Penn State Behrend) 

• Ms. Ashley Stauffer, Research Program Analyst  (OACIOR)

• Dr. Sheila Vrana, Associate Dean for Research (College of Medicine) 

Questions

Please direct any questions to either Courtney Karmelita (cec5032@psu.edu) or Briana Wham (bde125@psu.edu).