RDM tools & services

  is an online tool for writing data management plans.  In DMPTuuli you can find general and organizational guidance on data management planning as well as data management plan templates by different research funders. 

You can also use the tool for teaching data management planning to students.

You’ll also find and introductory video guide to the service on DMPTuuli’s front page.

What is Etsin?

enables you to find research datasets from all fields of science. Etsin contains information about the datasets and metadata in the national Finnish Fairdata services. We also currently harvest information from the Language Bank of Finland, the Finnish Social Science Data archive and the Finnish Environmental Institute, and new sources will be included.

Etsin works independently of the actual data storage location, but includes information on the storage location and usage rights. Etsin provides download links when possible, links to landing pages of harvested metadata sets, links to the rights entitlement system and a contact form.

Who can use Etsin?

The published metadata on the dataset is open to everyone. The data owner decides how the underlying research data can be accessed and by whom. Etsin works independently of actual data storage location and contains no research datasets. Datasets can be described and published through the

The Fairdata Qvain tool offers you a straightforward form in which to describe your data. Once you are happy with it, you can publish the dataset and make it visible to others.

Qvain provides your dataset with a persistent identifier, landing page and distributes its description to other relevant services.

Get in touch with an IT expert who will help you sort out all your IT needs, tailor the right solutions for you with you, and help you manage your data properly and efficiently. Provides consulting ranging from IT acquisitions to e.g. managing sensitive data to life cycle management.

Research data storage service IDA () is a continuous service for safe research data storage organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The service is offered free of charge to Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences and state research institutes. IDA is part of the Fairdata services.

IDA enables saving, organizing and sharing data within the project group and storing the data in an immutable state. Use of the service requires that the stored data are described as research dataset. The described data can be set openly available or its availability can be restricted. The owners of the data decide on the openness and usage policies for their own data.

IDA service stores the data stored by organisations projects continuously or until it’s transferred to digital preservation, provided that the Terms of Use are met.

• Before the data stored in IDA can be made openly accessible, descriptive information (metadata) is added to the data with the research dataset description tool .

• The research dataset published with Qvain gets a persistent identifier and a landing page in . This makes the dataset findable for others, and enables re-use of the data and creating a scientific reference. The files linked to the published dataset can be set openly available. It’s also possible to publish only the metadata of the dataset.

Dryad is an international open-access repository of research data, especially data underlying scientific and medical publications. Dryad is a curated general-purpose repository that makes data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable.

Suitable for both quantitative and qualitative data. They will describe the data for you, store them in a file format suitable for reuse and help you with the anonymisation of the data. Your data will be preserved for decades to come reliably and in accordance with current data security regulations and requirements.

The Language Bank of Finland is a service for researchers using language resources across digital humanities and social sciences. The Language Bank has a wide variety of text and speech corpora and tools for studying them. The corpora can be analyzed and processed with the Language Bank's tools or downloaded.

is an easy to use data repository funded by European Commission and maintained by CERN. 

See their Help-page for guidance: .  

What is Etsin?

enables you to find research datasets and to make your own datasets discoverable to others. Etsin offers access to datasets in various fields via a joint metadata model. The descriptive metadata stored in the service includes information on the authors, subject, format and licensing of the dataset.

Who can use Etsin? 

Anyone can use Etsin to search for research datasets. Haka-authenticated users may enter information on their own datasets, and of others' datasets with their permission. Etsin aims to collect information on datasets from various sources and from various fields. You do not have to be a professional scientist or researcher in order use the service.

Is all data in Etsin open? 

The published metadata on the dataset is open to everyone. The data owner decides how the underlying research data can be accessed and by whom. Nevertheless, sharing your data openly is recommended whenever possible. Etsin works independently of actual data storage location.

Long-term preservation refers to the preservation of digital information in an intelligible and usable form for several decades or even centuries. Hardware, software and file formats will become outdated, but the information must be preserved.

At the University of Helsinki, direct questions to the Data Support:

Via you can propose digital data produced at the University of Helsinki for long-term preservation.

More about PAS-service: 

REDCap is a secure web platform for building and managing online databases and surveys. REDCap is available to all students and staff at the University of Helsinki. Log into REDCap at    with your University of Helsinki username and password.  First login email format: .  REDCap is installed on the University’s own servers, and the data collected when using REDCap is also stored on the University’s servers. 

REDCap provides automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to Excel and common statistical packages (SPSS, SAS, Stata, R), as well as a built-in project calendar, a scheduling module, ad hoc reporting tools, and advanced features, such as branching logic, file uploading, and calculated fields. It is especially useful for collecting and managing sensitive information. 

Please ensure that data protection requirements are met before you start collecting any data. in Flamma is an excellent source on these requirements.

Detailed instructions and training videos can be found on and the same videos are also available for viewing on the University of Helsinki’s REDCap site after you have logged in.

REDCap was created in 2004 at Vanderbilt University and it is constantly developed by the members of the consortium. Vanderbilt University has also a very thorough course on Data Management for Clinical Research in which REDCap is used: 

If you require assistance or have any questions about REDCap, please contact REDCap Support (). The Helsinki University Library organizes basic training sessions on REDCap. .