Introduction
1. Preparing a DMP
2. Documenting and Organizing Data
3. Storing Data and Data Security
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Data Collection – Introduction

By now you will have obtained some idea of what research data management is all about. Now we will have a more in-depth look into the different phases of your research by starting with data collection.

Data collection involves understanding the different types of data you collect. Depending on the nature of your research, there are different methods of collecting data and thus different types of data.

Your data may be physical (paper records or archival forms) or digital (database contents or Excel data). The source of your data may be external, you collect it yourself or you generate it from a machine.

When you write your data management plan you will need to take into account the type of data you collect, the source of the data, and how you will process and analyse your data.

You can watch the video below, provided by TU Delft, about data collection.

Having a clear view of what data you will generate will enable you to plan its management. You can create an overview of the data you produce or collect by drawing the data in a workflow, or noting down in a table.