Abstract

The research landscape is changing, with key global research funders now requiring institutions to demonstrate how they will preserve and share research data. However, the practice of structured research data management is very new, and the construction of services remains experimental and in need of models and standards of approach. This groundbreaking guide will lead researchers, institutions and policy makers through the processes needed to set up and run effective institutional research data management services. This ‘how to’ guide provides a step-by-step explanation of the components for an institutional service. Case studies from the newly emerging service infrastructures in the UK, USA and Australia draw out the lessons learnt. Different approaches are highlighted and compared; for example, a researcher-focused strategy from Australia is contrasted with a national, top-down approach, and a national research data management service is discussed as an alternative to institutional services. The key topics covered are: research data provision; options and approaches to research data management (RDM) service provision; a spectrum of roles, responsibilities and competences; a pathway to sustainable research data services; the range and components of RDM infrastructure and services; case studies of Johns Hopkins University, University of Southampton, Monash University, the UK Data Service and Jisc Managing Research Data programmes. This book will be an invaluable guide to those entering a new and untried enterprise. It will be particularly relevant to heads of libraries, information technology managers, research support office staff and research directors planning for these types of services. It will also be of interest to researchers, funders and policy makers as a reference tool for understanding how shifts in policy will have a range of ramifications within institutions. Library and information science students will find it an informative window on an emerging area of practice.
Graham Pryor is Information Management Consultant with the Amor Group, following six years as Associate Director with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), where he designed and managed the e-Science liaison and institutional engagement programmes. Until his departure from the DCC in mid-2013 he also developed the highly inclusive Research Data Management Forum, a medium for the bi-annual exchange of knowledge and experience in the more urgent topics surfacing from the broader data community. Prior to the DCC he spent nine years as Director of Information Systems and Services at the University of Aberdeen, which followed a number of senior information management posts within the UK’s defence and energy sectors. Sarah Jones is a Senior Information Support Officer with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), a UK national service providing support to the higher education sector in all aspects of research data management. Since 2011 her principal focus has been on the DCC's institutional engagement programme, in which she has been leading the provision of support to a range of universities, helping them to scope researchers' requirements, delivering training, advising on the customisation of the DMPonline tool and assisting the implementation of research data management services. She also develops guidance materials for the DCC, specifically on research data policy and data management planning, and has been involved in a number of projects from the Jisc Managing Research Data programme. Angus Whyte is a Senior Institutional Support Officer in the Digital Curation Centre (DCC). He works alongside partners in UK universities to improve services that support researchers and other stakeholders in data management, and has authored guidelines and articles on a range of data issues. Angus has a PhD in Social Informatics from the University of Strathclyde and before joining the DCC was for 10 years a postdoc researcher, working on requirements discovery and the evaluation of information systems to support engagement in policy-making.