Data Services
Lafayette College Libraries and Information Technology Services are here to assist you during all the phases of your research.
When planning your research, it’s important to consider the entire lifecycle of the data you’ll be using. Research data lifecycle models (such as the one below adapted from the UK Data Archive) vary slightly from one another, but they all capture a path through time as researchers acquire, analyze, and generate new information from data. The path is circular because research data often lives on after a project is completed. Data should be preserved and made accessible for new research projects in the future, and to serve as a record validating the original research.
Read more on what supports and services are available to you at different stages of your research project and your data lifecycle:
- Data Management Planning: Resources for writing Data Management Plans and grant requirements.
- Discovering and Acquiring Datasets: Contact information for librarians specializing in disciplinary data, links to data resources within the library and sources of open datasets.
- Documenting Data: A guide to structuring data about your data.
- Processing and Organizing Data: Services to help improve the usability of your data and research materials.
- Preserving and Disseminating Data: How digital repositories can support you.
Members of the Data Services team are also available for one-on-one consultations, and to teach workshop(s) to your class, research team, or department. For more information, or to schedule a workshop or consultation, please contact Nora Zimmerman, Digital Repository Librarian, at zimmerno@lafayette.edu.
More General Information about grants and funding for research is available from the Office of Sponsored Research, in the Provost’s Office.
Additional Resources:
MANTRA – online training in research data management
MANTRA is a free online course by the University of Edinburgh on the key elements of research data management. Topics include: file formats & transformation, metadata and documentation throughout the research lifecycle, data protection, rights, and access, and more!