Roles and responsibilities

Data management is not solely the responsibility of the individual data producer who collects the data. Multiple people and organisations part of the project may be involved in ensuring data quality, safeguarding data, and enabling responsible sharing and reuse.

It is important that roles and responsibilities are explicitly assigned and documented, rather than assumed.

In collaborative projects, assigning roles across partners is especially important. It can be helpful to create a clear table of responsibilities with named individuals and defined tasks. Institutional policies, research governance frameworks and support services can help clarify these responsibilities.

Key roles in data management and sharing

People involved in data management and sharing may include:

• Project lead or principal investigator: responsible for designing and overseeing the research, ensuring compliance with funder, institutional and legal requirements, and approving data management and sharing decisions.
• Project co-leads and research staff: responsible for collecting, processing and analysing data, and for applying agreed data management procedures, including secure handling, documentation and preparation of data for sharing.
• Data managers, data stewards or technical staff: responsible for supporting data organisation, curation activities, metadata creation, documentation and preparation of datasets for deposit.
• External contractors or service providers: involved in activities such as data collection, transcription, data entry, processing or analysis. Where contractors are used, standard protocols and data handling requirements should be agreed in advance and documented.
• Research support and governance staff: including staff involved in research administration, ethics review, contracts and intellectual property management, who support compliance and institutional oversight.
• Institutional IT services: providing infrastructure for data storage, security, backup and controlled access during active research.
• External data centres or repositories: responsible for reviewing deposited materials, carrying out quality checks where applicable, supporting metadata enhancement, and providing long-term preservation and access management.

In many social science projects, especially smaller or short-term studies, the same individual may carry out several of these roles. For example, a principal investigator may also act as data steward and lead analyst, or a research assistant may support both data processing and documentation.

What matters most is that responsibilities are clearly assigned, understood and documented. Every project should ensure that someone is explicitly responsible for each critical data management and sharing task.

Clear role allocation helps avoid common problems such as missing documentation, unclear ownership, delayed deposits, or uncertainty about who can approve data release.

Training and skills development

Consider whether specific training may be needed for staff involved in data management activities. Institutions and specialist organisations often provide training in areas such as data protection, documentation, anonymisation and repository deposit procedures.

Building data management skills across research teams supports consistency, compliance and high-quality data sharing.