Glossary

Accessible

Research data is accessible if it can be accessed by anyone in the world, either openly or through an authentication or authorisation process. This requires metadata describing it in a standardised format.

Data

The information or facts collected, observed, or generated during the course of a study or investigation.

Data dictionary

A data dictionary is a collection of names, definitions, and attributes about data elements being used in shared data.

Findable

Research data is more findable by interested parties if it is stored in a well-organised repository with detailed metadata and persistent identifiers.

Interoperable

Datasets are interoperable if they can be used together to generate new studies. The metadata uses standard vocabularies, which are consistent across lots of different datasets.

Open data and materials

Data and materials from an open study are freely available to be used, reused, and redistributed by anyone.

Materials

Anything used in a study, eg: questionnaires, consent forms, protocols outlining what was done, the code used to run any statistical analyses, etc.

Metadata

Information that accompanies a piece of research, organising the materials, data and publications.

Reproducibility

A study is reproducible if, when you run the same analyses on the same data, you get the same results.

Open access repository

An open access repository is a digital platform that holds research output and provides free, immediate and permanent access to research data and materials.

Qualitative

A qualitative method is used to identify, analyse and report patterns (themes) in non-numerical data.

Quantitative

Quantitative methods deal with numbers, aiming to quantify phenomena and establish patterns or relationships.

Reusable

Research data is reusable if it can be used, modified or analysed, potentially by other researchers, to generate new knowledge. It needs to include clear information to facilitate re-use.

Secondary data analysis

A type of study where you use existing data to answer new questions.