Research data management is:
- The process of ensuring that your data is organized, accessible, clearly understood, and preserved for future access.
- Rules and guidelines that you and/or your team set to manage the organization, storage, preservation and access of data generated from your research.
- Steps required by federal funding agencies
- Preparing your data for sharing and access
Metadata is the information that defines what your data is about and what it describes. Good metadata is a part of good research data management. Someone who does not know your research personally should be able to understand what your data is describing because of the metadata that accompanies the data.
Good metadata is a love note to the future
When you conduct your research, think how you will view if come back to look at it in a year or two. Will you still understand what your data is about? Good metadata ensures that you or another researcher will be able to make sense of what your data describes, monitors, etc.