Systematic data management

Abstract

Systematic data management has become essential for the collection, storage, and use of "big data" common to banking, healthcare, and insurance industries. However, projects of all sizes can benefit from structured data management. The collection and storage of information using appropriate organizational structure, data entry, and metadata promotes error free and efficient manipulation, reporting, analysis, sharing, and congruity over time (Léonard 1992). In this chapter we discuss from the perspective of raptor biology how to organize information so that it can be accessed, managed, and updated easily and without error (Ritchie 2002). Recent literature has highlighted the significant benefits accrued by wildlife research programs using systematic data management (Rüegg et al. 2014, Applegate 2015, Reynolds et al. 2016). Despite the practical benefits, systematic data management remains underused by wildlife researchers (Applegate 2015). One barrier to the implementation of systematic data management is that there are few resources designed specifically to assist wildlife biologists, and virtually none for raptor researchers. Researchers developing a data management system can use Chamanara and König-Ries (2014), Briney (2015), and Reynolds et al. (2016) for examples of broad conceptual ideas for building and managing data.