Journal Article: “Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries”

The following peer-reviewed article was published online earlier today.

Title

Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries

Authors

Andrew M. Cox
University of Sheffield

Mary Anne Kennan
Charles Stuart University

Elizabeth Josephine Lyon
University of Pittsburgh

Stephen Pinfield
University of Sheffield

Laura Sbaffi
University of Sheffield

Source

International Journal of Data Curation
Vol 14 No 1 (2019)
DOI: 10.2218/ijdc.v14i1.595

Abstract

University libraries have played an important role in constructing an infrastructure of support for Research Data Management at an institutional level. This paper presents a comparative analysis of two international surveys of libraries about their involvement in Research Data Services conducted in 2014 and 2018. The aim was to explore how services had developed over this time period, and to explore the drivers and barriers to change. In particular, there was an interest in how far the FAIR data principles had been adopted.

Services in nearly every area were more developed in 2018 than before, but technical services remained less developed than advisory. Progress on institutional policy was also evident. However, priorities did not seem to have shifted significantly. Open ended answers suggested that funder policy, rather than researcher demand, remained the main driver of service development and that resources and skills gaps remained issues. While widely understood as an important reference point and standard, because of their relatively recent publication date, FAIR principles had not been widely adopted explicitly in policy.

Direct to Full Text Article
10 pages; PDF.

See Also: “Library Capacity for Data Curation Services: A US National Survey” (July 15, 2019)

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