Overview
This course examines the principles and practices of managing, documenting, preserving, and curating data throughout its life cycle. Students develop data management plans; design maintainable file, folder, repository, and tabular structures; apply relational concepts, identifiers, keys, normalization, controlled vocabularies, metadata standards, data dictionaries, provenance records, and audit trails; and implement version control, validation, quality assessment, cleaning, and error-correction workflows.
The course addresses interoperability, persistent identifiers, storage and backup, preservation and archiving, access controls, licensing, documentation for reuse, responsible data sharing, reproducible workflows, community standards, and ethical stewardship of sensitive data. Practical work culminates in preparing datasets and supporting documentation for repository deposit and evaluating their findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability while distinguishing operational data management from long-term digital curation.
Learning Outcomes
- Design a comprehensive data management plan addressing structure, storage, security, preservation, access, licensing, documentation, and sharing.
- Construct maintainable data structures using appropriate file formats, naming conventions, folder systems, relational concepts, identifiers, keys, and normalization principles.
- Develop metadata records, data dictionaries, codebooks, controlled vocabularies, provenance statements, and audit trails that support interpretation and reuse.
- Apply validation rules and systematic cleaning workflows to identify, document, correct, and assess missing, duplicate, inconsistent, and erroneous records.
- Implement version control and reproducible procedures for tracking changes, documenting transformations, and supporting auditability.
- Evaluate storage, backup, preservation, access-control, and repository-deposit strategies according to operational, technical, ethical, and institutional requirements.
- Assess datasets and documentation against findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability criteria.
- Synthesize responsible data-sharing practices that address sensitive information, ethical stewardship, community standards, licensing, and long-term digital curation.
Timetable
| Type | Length | Frequency | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Lab | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Tutorial | 1 hour | Fortnightly | All semester |
Assessment Schedule
| Type | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Data management plan | 15.00% |
| Deliverable | Data structure and metadata portfolio | 20.00% |
| Test | Cleaning and validation practical test | 20.00% |
| Assignment | Repository deposit and curation exercise | 15.00% |
| Quiz | Data stewardship quizzes (4 × 5%) | 20.00% |
| Exam | Final examination | 10.00% |
Teaching Staff & Programs
This course is delivered jointly by faculty from the participating programs listed below. In line with the Douchewater Way, the University of Sexology tailors core instruction directly to each cohort's specific discipline — adapting curriculum to program needs rather than forcing students into a one-size-fits-all model. Learn more about our approach at The Douchewater Way.
