Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures of the Republic of Lithuania
Curriculum Vitae Ombudsperson agendaOn 2 December, the Office of the Ombudsperson organised the seminar to representatives of institutional review boards, representatives of the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee and the commission of research ethics of the Research Council of Lithuania, and other members of academic community about research data management. Head of the Office of the Ombudsperson, Dr Loreta Tauginienė, discussed the importance of planning in data management to ensure research ethics. The ombudswoman presented the methods how to depersonalise research data and provided several application examples. Senior specialists (senior analysts) from the Office of the Ombudsperson, Dr Birutė Liekė and Dr Julija Umbrasaitė presented parts of a research data management plan: general background, collection of research data, metadata, and analysis of research data. The speakers discussed what information has to be provided in the research data management plan and shared their insights into what researchers should draw attention to, in order to avoid possible violations of research ethics. A professor from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Habil Dr Artūras Kaklauskas, reviewed the requirements for storage and backup of research data and their practice, and provided recommendations on how to store research data, make their backup copies, etc. The representative from UAB Visionary Analytics, Aurinta Garbašauskaitė and researcher from the Nature Research Centre, Dr Eglė Jakubavičiūtė shared their good practice about data processing after research completion.
The participants in the seminar discussed the guidance of which country should be followed while planning international research and who – institutions or researchers – are responsible for data storage facilities, what responsibilities researchers and other employees have, who can provide assistance with regard to IT, standards, personal data protection and other issues. The attendees were interested in research data storage in Lithuania and abroad, and in the research-specific fields. It was also discussed how to collect sensitive personal information, such as gender. It was stressed during the seminar how important it is to define the responsibilities of all researchers to avoid problems during the research conduct and afterwards as well, as data management plans could help to save the financial resources of research and higher education institutions.
More than 70 participants were present at the event.