Library & Archives

Statistics: Power from Data! is an e-book from Statistics Canada that will help in getting the most from statistics. It includes definitions, examples, exercises and a glossary.

OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms: contains a comprehensive set of definitions of the main data items collected by the Organisation. The Glossary also contains definitions of key terminology and concepts and commonly used acronyms.

Canadian Community Health Survey: The central objective of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) is to gather health-related data at the sub-provincial levels of geography (health region or combined health regions). CCHS microdata files are available through <odesi>.

Health statistics in CANSIM: See a list of all StatCan statistics on health-related topics, including aggregate tables from the CCHS.

Health Profile: This profile features community-level data from a number of sources including Statistics Canada's health surveys, administrative data, and the census of population. The application is designed to give quick access to the latest health-related data available for a selected health region, providing the corresponding provincial data by default, but users can easily select any region of choice for comparison.

Letter of Information

Purpose of the research

In order to become better prepared to support research data management (RDM) practices at Laurentian University (LU), we are conducting a research study of LU researchers.

Your participation in this research is important and will help to:

• determine how LU faculty, lecturers, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students manage and share research data beyond their project
• determine how LU Library and Archives and the Office of Research Services might help to facilitate data management activities
• understand some of the differences in research data management practices and needs across disciplines
• contribute to the scholarly literature on RDM.

Who is performing the research?

This research project is being carried out by the Laurentian University Library & Archives in partnership with the Office of Research Services.

Description of the research

This survey will ask you how you work with research data, how you share your data, your awareness of funding mandates for research data management, and basic demographic questions about your professional status.

The estimated time to complete the survey is approximately 10-15 minutes. We would appreciate your response by Tuesday November 20, 2018.

What are the potential benefits of participating in this survey?

Information gathered will help the LU Library and Archives and the Office of Research Services to understand current practices and become better prepared to support RDM needs. RDM practices are becoming increasingly important to faculty and researchers who may begin to face requirements to submit research data or data management plans along with any journal submissions or funding applications.

What are the potential risks involved in participating in this survey?

The risk involved in participating in this study is minimal, no greater than you would encounter in your everyday life. All data shared outside of the research team will be anonymized, although there is a small risk that individual participants' responses may be identified by those familiar with their work. However, the impact of accidental disclosure is judged to be low.

Access to research information

Data will be stored in LU's REDCap survey platform (link opens in new tab) for the duration of the project. Survey responses will be exported to LU Drive for analysis and retained indefinitely. Data collected will help LU Library and Archives and the Office of Research Services design services for the benefit of LU's academic community.

Data sharing and publication

At the end of this project we propose to publish a dataset of anonymized survey responses, including yours. This will permit secondary analysis of the results by other researchers. We would also like to share the anonymized responses with the Canadian RDM Survey Consortium (link opens in new tab) to be aggregated with responses from other participating institutions for analysis at the national level. Data from participating institutions will help organizations such as the Portage Network (link opens in new tab) design services and advocated for national RDM initiatives for the benefit of the Canada's academic community.

You will have the opportunity to opt in or out of both data sharing and publication separately. If you opt out of either data sharing or publication, your responses will still be used for analysis at Laurentian University.

Participation

Participation in the survey is voluntary. You may decline to answer any questions and you may withdraw from the survey without consequence at any time before submission of the survey. After the survey has been submitted, answers are anonymous and therefore cannot be withdrawn. If contact information has been provided, that information will be stored separately from your responses and will remain confidential. Contact information will only be used to contact you for expressly statement purposes.

Communication of results

The survey findings may be published or presented in scholarly communications. If you would like a copy of the survey results/anonymized dataset or have any questions about the survey, you may contact:

Tomasz Mrozewski

Principal Investigator, Laurentian University Library & Archives

Telephone: 705-675-1151 x3325

Email: tmrozewski@laurentian.ca

Ethics review

This research has been reviewed and approved by Laurentian University Research Ethics Board certificate # 6013797. If you have concerns or questions about your rights as a participant or about the way the study is conducted, you may contact:

Research Ethics Officer, Laurentian University Research Office

Telephone: 705-675-1151 x2436 or toll free at 1-800-461-4030

Email: ethics@laurentian.ca

A copy of this letter of information may be accessed on the LU Library & Archives website at https://biblio.laurentian.ca/research/pages/lu-rdm-survey-0.