Open Collections

Barsky, Eugene

Background In 2015, the Tri-Council funding agencies announced the intention to release guidelines requiring Research Data Management plans for grant applications soon. In preparation to support researchers facing new requirements, UBC librarians surveyed faculty from Engineering, Natural and Physical Sciences in June and July, 2015, to determine both the actual practices of research data management (RDM) employed by these researchers and areas where the researchers would like help. The results of this survey can assist the University in making evidence-based decisions to direct its expertise to support and assist faculty in improving their data management to meet new requirements from funding bodies. Findings Researchers are collecting and working with a very wide variety of types of data ranging from numerical and text data to multimedia files, software, instrument specific data, geospatial data and other types of data. Faculty identified areas for which they would like additional help and support within 3 broad themes: Storage (including preservation and sharing) Data Management Plans Metadata and DOIs The Library and campus partners have opportunities, as identified by researchers in this survey, to bolster research excellence through strong Research Data Management supports. Recommendations: The Library continues to work with VPRI ARC, Office of Research Services, IT Services and other campus partners to plan and coordinate services for researchers around the management of research data. UBC implement a program to inform all new and existing researchers of the research data management supports available to them to ensure strong research data management plans are included in research grant funding proposals. UBC ensure robust infrastructure is available to researchers to store, preserve, and share their research data. Conclusions With more detailed statistical analysis coming soon, we could see that respondents indicated that they need assistance with storage and security of research data, with crafting data management plans, with centralized research data repository and with workshops about research data best practices for faculty and especially for graduate students. Further, understanding the particular needs or habits within specific research areas can provide insight into how disciplines think about and work with data. Finally, a greater awareness of perceived barriers and benefits can enable targeted conversations. These results can assist the library and other campus partners with the development of a strategic direction for research data management support. Dataset is available at: Barsky, Eugene; Mitchell, Marjorie; Buhler, Jeremy, 2016, "UBC Research Data Management Survey: Science and Engineering ", http://hdl.handle.net/11272/10364 V7 [Version]

Report

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0348069

Library, UBC

Faculty

DSpace