Data Management (DM) Working Group

• The IMBeR Data Management Committee (DMC) aims to make Data Management useful and not the "chore" it is often made out to be.
• Good data management has many benefits, speeds up research, improves data sets, enhances publications and increases visibility to other researchers.
• The number one rule is not to put it off! Plan data management right from the start of your project. 
• The IMBeR Data Policy provides broad guidelines and the Data Management CookBook is a step by step set of "recipes" for good data management.
• Powerpoint tutorials from the Data Management Dry Cruise workshop at IMBER IMBIZO II are available here.
• The IMBeR Metadata Portal provides an overview of IMBeR endorsed and related projects. By creating the DIF record (it's easy, see CookBook), your project will have international exposure.

The Cookbook

While the idea for this compendium of recipes to make data management digestible came from the IMBeR community, the recipes are in no way restricted to IMBeR, but should be suitable for any project that gathers data and wishes them to be available and useful in the long-term. IMBeR is a marine project, so the examples are cruise-based. Cruises involve a number of researchers, often from different disciplines. However, the data management principles given in the cookbook can apply to any project.