Decision Guide: Which Tool for Which Question?
Last updated on 2026-10-23 | Edit this page
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Overview
Questions
- How can we summarise what we learned for our own consulting practice?
Objectives
- Use a decision guide to choose tools for typical consulting questions.
- Identify training offers to refer researchers to.
Decision guide
| Question of the researcher | First recommendation | Next step | Where to learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Our data is in spreadsheets and has to move to a database.” | |||
| “We keep overwriting each other’s work.” | |||
| “I collect metadata by hand.” |
Your own cases
Look at the consulting questions you collected in the introduction. Which of them can you now answer better? Which remain open?
An overview for your own institution
Researchers often do not know which tools their own institution offers. The templates Research Tools at a Glance by Alexandra Mielke (CC BY 4.0), created as a project of the certificate course Research Data Management, give an overview of digital collaboration tools and storage options. They are available as pptx and xlsx and can be adapted to any institution.
Your first step
Open the templates and note which tools from today’s cases your institution offers. Where are the gaps? Whom would you ask?
Where to go from here
- Start from the researcher’s question, not from the tool.
- Know where to refer researchers for in-depth training.
- An overview of the tools your institution offers helps researchers and consultants alike.