Research Data Management Initiatives at University of Edinburgh

Abstract

During the last decade, national and international attention has been increasingly focused on issues of research data management and access to publicly funded research data. The pressure brought to bear on researchers to improve their data management and data sharing practice has come from research funders seeking to add value to expensive research and solve cross-disciplinary grand challenges; publishers seeking to be responsive to calls for transparency and reproducibility of the scientific record; and the public seeking to gain and re-use knowledge for their own purposes using new online tools. Meanwhile higher education institutions have been rather reluctant to assert their role in either incentivising or supporting their academic staff in meeting these more demanding requirements for research practice, partly due to lack of knowledge as to how to provide suitable assistance or facilities for data storage and curation/preservation. This paper discusses the activities and drivers behind one institution’s recent attempts to address this gap, with reflection on lessons learned and future direction.

Bibliometrics and Research Data Management Services: Emerging Trends in Library Support for Research

“…Reports of data management initiatives taken at other libraries have followed: for example, in America, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Walters, 2009), MIT (Gabridge, 2009), University of Houston (Peters & Dryden, 2011), University of Oregon (Westra, 2010), and University of Colorado Boulder (Lage, Losoff, & Maness, 2012); in Australia, Queensland University of Technology (Thomas, 2011) and the University of Sydney (Brownlee, 2009); in Asia, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Wong, 2009); and in Europe, the University of Edinburgh (Rice & Haywood, 2011). Soehner et al (2010) also provide case studies of Cornell University, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, in addition to updates on developments at Johns Hopkins, MIT, and Purdue.…”

“…The role of libraries and librarians in managing research data also features in chapters of recent texts on the future of academic libraries (e.g., Carlson & Garritano, 2010;Lewis, 2010;Swan, 2011). Evidence from the literature shows that librarians are building on existing practices across the libraries, in areas from the reference interview and information literacy to digital preservation and repository development, as well as developing new models of practice, especially in relation to assessing data curation needs: for example, librarians at Purdue have used "data interviews" to develop Data Curation Profiles of campus researchers, while librarians at Boulder have created "personas" of researchers that can potentially be used at other universities (Lage et al, 2012) Common themes characterizing the activities of librarians in response to the research data challenge include conducting assessments of needs among their user communities (Delserone, 2008;Gabridge, 2009;Lage et al, 2012;Peters & Dryden, 2011;Rambo, 2010;Rice & Haywood, 2011;Thomas, 2011;Walters, 2009;Westra, 2010;Witt, 2008); exploring the deposit of research datasets in institutional repositories (Brownlee, 2009;Choudhury, 2008;Delserone, 2008;Gabridge, 2009;Rice & Haywood, 2011;Walters, 2009;Witt, 2008;Wong, 2009); forming groups within the library to progress initiatives (Delserone, 2008;Gabridge, 2009;Peters & Dryden, 2011;Rambo, 2010;Walters, 2009;Witt, 2008); creating new library positions, notably with an interdisciplinary research focus (Delserone, 2008;Walters, 2009;Witt, 2008); developing strategic alliances and partnerships with other campus organizations, suc...…”

Data Visualization and Information Literacy

“…Data management training courses have sprung up at universities around the world, such as the University of Minnesota (Jeffryes and Johnston, 2013) or the University of Edinburgh (Rice and Haywood, 2011). These courses are typically focused on graduate students in the disciplines, teaching them how to handle and present their research findings and data.…”

Advancing Scholarship through the Research Data Program

“…These two publications over the past decade document the development of a variety of different types of data and research data management (RDM) services in academic libraries. A sampling of articles profiles institutions such as Cornell University (Steinhart, 2009), The Georgia Institute of Technology (Walters, 2009), Leiden University (Schoots, Sesink, Verhaar, & Frederiks, 2017), Penn State University Libraries (Hswe et al, 2011), the University of Porto (Ribeiro & Fernandes, 2011), as well as recurring articles from the University of Edinburgh (Rice & Haywood, 2011;Rice et al, 2013) and Oxford University (Wilson, Martinez-Uribe, Fraser, & Jeffreys, 2011;Rumsey & Jefferies, 2013;Wilson & Jeffreys, 2013), which illustrate the evolution of their services over time. Thus the data services developing at the Harvard Business School continue a rich and active history and illustrate the current momentum in the field.…”