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Before starting to collect or produce research data, it is highly recommended that you plan your data management. If you need help with the data, ask help from Data Agents. For collecting data, check services.

2. Training in Research Data Management and Open Science | Aalto University
    

Pay special attention to data handling to prevent disclosure of confidential data. Important considerations include:

1. First, classify the information. How sensitive is it?
2. Are there legal restrictions, nondisclosure agreement, or external requirements on how to handle the data and what services to use?
3. Plan the handling of personal data in the beginning of your research.
4. Use only approved IT systems for storage, transfer and sharing of confidential data (see the basic guide to information classifications). Any new IT system in Aalto should have a security review to be done.

Below are some links to help you consider the security aspects mentioned above.

Aalto Network Drives (on-premise) are recommended for research. The storage has automatic backups and it is suitable for confidential data. The network drives are easy to use with Aalto internal data. 

1. Use Teamwork file storage space for research projects
2. Use Secwork file storage for secret data
    

National CSC services:

1. Use for storing and sharing large data.
2. Use for storing for publishing and preserving data. IDA is not suitable for confidential data.

Computing:

1. Aalto high-performance computing cluster
2. Secure operating environment SecData for sensitive data
3. Cloud: Azure | Aalto University or Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Aalto University
4. CSC environments

For daily real-time collaboration, use Microsoft Teams for best experience. Teams may be used in groups with external partners too.

Collaboration with confidential data requires paying attention to security. You can work safely with these services when extra security measures are followed:

• Eduuni: access restricted to authorized people only
• Teams (and other cloud storage sharing): access restricted to authorized people only
• Funet FileSender: use built-in File encryption option with a strong password. Share password via secure channel (encrypting messaging app, SMS, ...).

For more details on the different storage services and data repositories for publishing data, please check the pages linked below:

• Comparison sheet about Data storage, File services
• What file storage to use when? guide lists recommended services for common scenarios

There are many services available for publishing data. The most commonly used general publication platforms are Zenodo and Fairdata IDA. Zenodo is well-suited for smaller projects (smaller size, less collaboration, less long-term management). IDA is also suitable for larger projects and data that requires management (e.g. includes ready-made command line tools).

Before publishing and preserving, ensure that your metadata is well documented: Data documentation, folder organization, and describing datasets | Aalto University Remember that reusability is highly affecting to the value of the data.

After preserving your data to a repository, remember to delete any unnecessary data from the data storages and collaboration tools. 

Preserving information on network drives requires good data lifecycle management and highlights individual and team responsibility. Documenting descriptive information and rules related to storage space is important for retention periods as well as ensuring data comprehensibility and reusability. Read more about data preserving and value determination: How to preserve data in storage spaces | Aalto University

(Note: New preservation solutions are under development. More information will follow).

Follow these links to navigate through research data management instructions.

Aalto University provides services, instructions and support to help our researchers manage their data well. Webinar training series on RDM and open science to everyone.

You can find useful information from Science-IT data policy: