Data description

Why describe data?

A data management plan should include a good description of research data. This will help other researchers understand the data, its spatial and temporal limits, and the research question for which the data was originally collected or generated.

A good data description would cover:

What the data is
Who can use it
When it can be used
How it can be used
What it might be used for
Where it can be found
How long it will be available.

Repurposing data descriptions

Data descriptions from plans can be uploaded to Research Data Australia. Managed by the Australian National Data Service, Research Data Australia allows other researchers to discover the existence of your data.

To be included in Research Data Australia, data does not need to be either digital or shared - individual researchers decide how much data, if any, they will share.

Research Data Australia links datasets to the researchers who created them, the institutions at which they work, and the grants that funded the research, if any.

Data description examples

Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching data derived from satellite imagery.

A coral bleaching dataset for various locations in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia for March 2002 and March 2006. The dataset describes percentage of bleaching and level of bleaching for locations identified by name and geospatial coordinates. The dataset is derived from analysis of NASA MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) ocean colour and sea surface temperature data.

Australian Pulp Fiction Collection

The Australian Pulp Fiction Collection contains biographical and bibliographic information, digitised cover art, and artist information for more than 5,000 Australian pulp fiction items published between 1939 and 1959 by more than 100 authors. The collection has a specific focus on the internationally successful author Alan Yates (pen name 'Carter Brown').