What Research Data Management Platforms Can Do for Researchers: From FAIR Data to Compliance
- Darina Dragouleva
- Feb 13
- 4 min read
How Much Can a RDM Platform Do for Researchers?
In today’s world, research is more data-driven than ever before. Researchers are expected to manage large amounts of data while meeting increasingly complex requirements around reproducibility, transparency, and compliance. Research Data Management, RDM, platforms have emerged as key tools in supporting this work. An important question remains, how much should an RDM platform do for researchers?
What Can an RDM Platform Do?
RDM platforms provide a single environment where data can be organized, stored, documented and shared or published. These processes aim to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, often referred to as FAIR Principles. Data is easier to find, understand, reused, as a result saving time and improving research quality.
RDM platforms significantly ease the research experience by providing a range of services that supports the entire Research Data Management project lifecycle. A breakdown of what an effective RDM platform does includes:
Team and Agreement Management - Before data can be collected and organized, an RDM platform should facilitate the team and agreement management that is required to bring research teams together. This is especially important in inter-disciplinary or cross-jurisdictional research teams. This should include digital eSignature capabilities as well as role-based access controls.
Data Collection and Documentation - Data must be collected, organized and
documented accurately before it can be analyzed. RDM platforms include metadata
capture and audit trails that enhance the transparency and reproductivity of the research data. This should also ensure support for PHI/PII data management as well as national and Indigenous data management principles support.
Secure Collaboration - Facilitate the sharing of research data with other researchers, promoting open science and collaboration. Members of the same research team can easily understand how the data was generated, altered and processed. Additionally, a good RDM platform enables controlled access and shared workflows between team members, allowing for collaboration while maintaining accountability. It should facilitate the complete capture of dataset metadata according to industry standards.
Compliance Support - Researchers must comply with many regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, GDPR, 21 CFR Part 11, NIST 800-171, PHIPA or PIPEDA. RDM platforms have built-in controls that allow researchers to easily comply with these standards, avoid breaches, and facilitate regulatory compliance.
Data Identification and Sharing - Data must remain usable and identifiable by researchers. RDM platforms offer repositories that assign persistent identifiers like DOIs to data and structures metadata that makes data searchable and interoperable. And soon, they will need to also issue RAiDs - the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Research Activity Identifiers.
Where The Boundaries Matter
While RDM platforms are advanced and can handle almost everything related to research data, there are limitations. An RDM platform should support data management, documentation, sharing, and compliance. Where possible, that incorporate clinical trial management capabilities are also capable of supporting participant engagement. Identifying participants, managing consent forms, and handling highly sensitive personal health information (PHI) all require specific techniques and governance frameworks. Next generation RDM platforms can also handle sensitive participant data supporting analysis, sharing, and long-term preservation. This approach protects participants while still enabling open, high-quality research.
What Does myLaminin Do For Researchers?
A platform like myLaminin highlights the powerful role next generation RDM solutions can play in simplifying and managing the entire research lifecycle. myLaminin is the most complete, integrated, and secure generalist RDM platform on the market today. It supports the full RDM lifecycle from project initiation, team and agreement management, data collection with PHI/PII data management through to the final publication. myLaminin supports clinical trials and data collection with PHI data management capabilities. Some of the tools that ease the research lifecycle include:
Facilitated Collaboration - myLaminin provides a consistent user interface to all research participants, regardless of their physical location. Users are alerted when a colleague is in the research data repository and they can coordinate activities on the research data set in real time. While myLaminin was designed by and for PIs, their teams, and external collaborators, it also supports the full needs of the administration through a robust IRB/REB (Research Ethics Board) module and role-based support for PIs, their team members, external collaborators, research legal services, institutional research ethics boards, and IT.
Realtime Audit Trails - myLaminin has a real-time audit trail of all actions taken within the research project by any team member. This includes who accessed the data, and how and when it was altered. This audit trail is searchable, filterable, and sortable, allowing users to easily understand who did what and when.
Regulatory Compliance - Privacy regulations, such as HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR controls have been implemented throughout the platform, making it the most secure, integrated, and complete RDM platform globally with the unique ability to support global collaboration seamlessly while adhering to all regional regulatory requirements. By supporting the controls required to adhere to all regional cybersecurity and data privacy regulations, myLaminin helps researchers and institutions to focus on their research as opposed to worrying about risks their protocols may introduce.
Persistent IDs and Metadata Standards - myLaminin supports metadata standards like DataCite, DDI and Dublin Core, ensuring that datasets are documented, discoverable and interoperable. Datasets managed through myLaminin can be published and indexed, making them findable and accessible.
Final thoughts
RDM platforms are transforming the way researchers manage, share, and preserve their data. They are helping researchers to quickly and easily respond to new regional regulatory requirements while facilitating collaboration with peers. Research Data Management platforms should support the full RDM lifecycle excluding participant engagement.
Platforms like myLaminin do just that, simplifying the entire research lifecycle, from data collection through to publication. By reducing administrative tasks and ensuring data security and transparency, myLaminin makes research more efficient, reproducible, and impactful.
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Darina Dragouleva (article author) is a myLaminin intern studying Health Sciences and Ivey AEO at Western University.
