Research Data Support Services

The Research Data Services department provides faculty, staff, and students with the expert data support — from project planning through analysis to sharing results — to enable high-quality research and instruction.

For each of our core services, we offer research guides and resources, consultations, and workshops by request. Our services are available to support IU researchers across disciplines and expertise level, whether working individually, in a lab or department, or as part of coursework. 

Besides offering support for the resources listed below, we also provide assistance in finding or accessing data that might help you with your specific project. With an eye towards quality, funder requirements, and publishing policies we are here to help you with your research data journey every step of the way.

Areas of Expertise

Planning Research
Data Management Planning

Draft, review, and operationalize a data management plan (DMP).

Acquiring Data
Finding and Reusing Data

Strategies for discovering and evaluating existing research data.

Acquiring Data
Maps & Spatial Data

Find and explore map collections.

Analyzing and Visualizing Data
Data Visualization

Wrangle, clean, and analyze your data.

Sharing and Archiving
Publishing Research Data

Share, preserve, and allow discovery of your research data.

Contact Us

In order to support the variety of research data needs across campus, we offer different degrees of support.

  • Consultations: These are best for individuals or groups looking for an hour or two of support. We can provide tailored support for the specific needs of your project at any stage of the research lifecycle.
  • Workshops: Our department can develop customized instruction for classes, departments, labs, or centers with sufficient notice (~4 weeks). We also offer several standard workshops (e.g., Data management best practices; GIS tools including ArcGIS, Storymaps, QGIS, and web mapping, and Data cleaning in R or Python) that can be requested at any time.
  • Partnerships: In some situations, RDS can partner with researchers on long-term projects, such as grant-funded efforts. These are handled on a case-by-case basis.

If you are interested in any of our levels of support, please fill out the following form and we will be in touch!

Get in touch with Research Data Services