vignettes/100_pre_planning.Rmd
100_pre_planning.RmdPre-project planning is important so that all researchers are on the same page, know what is needed of them, and sets up proper data management practices. During pre-project planning the Data Management Plan should be reviewed and, if necessary, altered to fit the specific project needs. Everyone associated with the project needs to read and accept the Data Management Plan.
Additionally, delineation of projects and subprojects, what researchers will be responsible for, authorship guidelines, and data access and ownership should all be planned out during pre-project planning. These aspects of the project can be changed as needed during the project but only after consultation between the PIs, project lead, and data manager.
For larger projects or collaborations, the individual research projects should be determined beforehand. These research projects will be the backbone for your file organization, R packaging, and determining the roles researchers will have for each research project.
The research projects can be delineated via the types of data collected, research questions, or another clear grouping. In addition, research projects can have subprojects used for R packaging and task assignment.
For example, the Caribbean Macrosystems project is one large research project with multiple subprojects. Two main subprojects (CaribMacro and CaribNet) were delineated based on the data used for each and used for R packaging. CaribMacro only uses biodiversity and island characteristic data and CaribNet, while also using data from CaribMacro, also uses detailed shipping network data not needed for CaribMacro. In this case, planned manuscripts or research questions were not appropriate since multiple papers will use these data, and because these projects share data, they are subprojects within the Caribbean Macrosystems project.
Or for graduate student projects, each chapter of a thesis/dissertation can be a separate project or subprojects.
Ultimately, project delineation is based on the preferences of the PIs and Project Lead and should be dependent on the needs and/or characteristics of the research being conducted.
Project roles need to be clearly defined for each project and subproject
Project roles should include at least PI point of contact, project lead, and data manager
For each project, researcher roles need to be defined. Important roles for research projects include PI point of contact, project lead, and data manager. In some cases, a researcher may hold multiple roles. An example of this is graduate student projects where the graduate student will often be both the project lead and data manager. The roles can be the same for the entire project or different between the subprojects.
PI point of contact: In the iEcoLab, this person is usually either Dr. Behm or Dr. Helmus but can be both. The PI point of contact will provide the project lead with guidance in the creation of research questions, the methods, and the writing of initial drafts of manuscripts and proposals.
Project Lead: the researcher who runs the day-to-day operations of the project (often a graduate student or postdoc). The project lead is also in charge of managing the other researchers on the project by scheduling their hours, giving them tasks, meeting with them regularly, and checking their work.
Data Manager: the researcher who is in charge of curating the data produced by the project. The data manager also sets the access to the data (based on instruction from PIs) and is in charge of formatting and properly backing up the data as defined by the Data Management Plan. It is the responsibility of both the data manager and project lead to make sure all researchers are adhering to the Data Management Plan that was agreed upon during pre-project planning. Often the data manager and project lead are the same researcher for this reason.
Data should be kept on a Shared Drive since PIs and University own the data
Data access rules need to be agreed upon before data collection begins
Data should always be kept in a common location accessible to the data manager and PIs. In the iEcoLab we use Google Shared Drives for this. During the pre-project planning, the PIs will create and share with you the shared drive for your folder. If you are associated with Temple University, then these shared drives must be shared to your university account. Access to these data will be controlled by the data manager and rules for which researchers associated with project have access to what data will be determined by both the PI point of contact and project lead.
Shared drives are used in the iEcoLab because the PIs and Temple University own the data. This means that the PIs need to always have access to the data and ultimately control who inside and outside the project has access to it which can be done easily as the owner of the shared drive through sharing permissions. Researchers who wish to have access and use the data should have Google Drive installed on their computer (instructions can be found HERE).
See the Data Storage and Sharing section for more information on final data storage and sharing.
Temple University, jmg5214@gmail.com↩︎
Temple University, sebastiano.debona@gmail.com↩︎
Temple University, mrhelmus@temple.edu↩︎
Temple University, jebehm@temple.edu↩︎