Don’t Lose Your Project Work: Protect Your Research Data with Cloud Backup

As a researcher, your work is priceless. You’ve invested so much time conducting experiments, collecting data, documenting results, and more. Losing all that hard work because of a glitch, theft, or misplacing your device is more than painful.

Backing up your research to the cloud not only saves you from the heartbreak of losing your files but also easier access, better security, and more. Let’s look at why you need to back up your research, how to do it, and its benefits.

Why Backup Your Research?

It Protects Your Data

Backing up your research to the cloud prevents data loss. You run the risk of losing all of your research if you don't have a backup. How do you start over?

You don't always have the luxury of starting over, collecting reports, and documenting them. There are deadlines to meet, and some analyses are so expensive that running them twice would be incredibly expensive.

Better Accessibility

Backing your research to the cloud also makes accessing your work easier and faster. You can create new files, edit them, and even share the on the go from anywhere with cloud storage.

All you have to do is sync your account across all of your devices, and your research will follow you wherever you go.

It Protects Your Data Integrity

People do not always compromise their research data because they are lazy; sometimes it is because of difficult circumstances, e.g data loss.?

Starting over research from scratch is expensive, it’s also time-consuming. With the deadlines approaching and costs piling up, fabricating values doesn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore.

Compromising your data integrity almost always backfires. Fabricated values can lead to your research being rejected, and it's even worse if it's accepted.

You could potentially endanger people's lives because of the white lie you inserted into your research findings. Imagine your inaccurate data being used to pioneer new technologies; that's a recipe for disaster.

• It helps Shareability.?

With your work backed up, you can always share manuscript copies to 3rd parties. For the Wadi PublishIt features, you can send a copy of your work on the cloud to one of our renowned consultants.?

How to Backup Your Research to Cloud

Sign Up for a Cloud Storage

The first thing you need to do is create an account. Some of the most popular options are Google Drive, Zoho Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.

If you already have a Google account, you already have google Drive, the same thing applies to Zoho.

Next Upload Your Research

Next, upload the research to your drive.?

Pro Tip: If your research is still ongoing, use a workspace or a cloud storage service that you can integrate with your workspace.

When you use a workspace like Google Workspace, WPS, or Zoho Workplace, you have access to all of the tools you need to document, analyze, and report your findings.

Sync Your Account Across your Devices

Finally, sign in across all of your devices so that you can access your files from anywhere. For example, if you created a dropbox account, and you use a laptop, tab and smartphone, sign in on all devices.

• Publish your work.?

The best way to ensure your research lives on after you is to publish it so that the new knowledge you have created can have an impact on the lives of real people.?

Best Practices for Backing up Your Research

Regular Backup Schedule

Continuously sync your research progress to your cloud storage. The whole point of using cloud backup is to avoid losing your work progress, so turn on auto-sync on your device.

Multiple Backups

Even with cloud storage, you could lose account access for one reason or the other. Let’s say your account recovery methods failed, you’re locked out and your research is lost, except you’re logged in on another device.

So set up multiple cloud storage accounts- backup your backups.

Conclusion

If you've been thinking about migrating from a device to cloud storage, now is the time to do it. Google Workspace, Zoho, WPS, and others all have free versions you can use. You can upgrade to premium if you want more features, such as more storage.

You can also publish your work on www.wadi.africa/publishit