Delivering Research Data Management Services: Fundamentals of Good Practice

Step-by-step guidance to setting up and running effective institutional research data management services to support researchers and networks.
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.
Key topics covered:

• Research data provision
• Options and approaches to research data management service provision
• A spectrum of roles, responsibilities and competences
• A pathway to sustainable research data services: from scoping to sustainability
• The range and components of RDM infrastructure and services.

Case studies:

• Johns Hopkins University
• University of Southampton
• Monash University
• The UK Data Service
• Jisc Managing Research Data programmes.

Readership: 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.

1. A patchwork of change - Graham Pryor 2. Options and approaches to RDM service provision - Graham Pryor 3. Who’s doing data? A spectrum of roles, responsibilities and competences - Graham Pryor 4. A pathway to sustainable research data services: from scoping to sustainability - Angus Whyte 5. The range and components of RDM infrastructure and services - Sarah Jones 6. Case study 1: Johns Hopkins University Data Management Services - G. Sayeed Choudhury 7. Case study 2: University of Southampton – a partnership approach to research data management - Mark L. Brown and Wendy White 8. Case study 3: Monash University, a strategic approach -Anthony Beitz, David Groenewegen, Cathrine Harboe-Ree, Wilna Macmillan and Sam Searle 9. Case study 4: a national solution – the UK Data Service -Matthew Woollard and Louise Corti 10. Case study 5: development of institutional RDM services by projects in the Jisc Managing Research Data programmes - Simon Hodson and Laura Molloy

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.

I feel the book is particularly relevant to professional support service staff who now find RDM is part of their remit. Viewed as a whole book, it is a comprehensive guide to the drivers of change, the components of building and executing a policy and implementing an RDM infrastructure, but will also act as a reference text, to look up specific areas of guidance and examples or be signposted toward resources.

I have to admit from the outset that when I was invited to review Delivering Research Data Management Services: Fundamentals of good practice by Pryor, Jones, and White, I was concerned that I may not be able to write a useful review for librarians looking for a source that would help them in the implementation of research data management (RDM) services. My concerns, however, were allayed after reading the first chapter of the book. I realized that this book was one that librarians can learn from, use, and adapt...the book is presented in a straightforward and scholarly manner without the overuse of jargon.

This is a book which resonated strongly with me. It advocates for a culture change in data practices; a sustainable, holistic approach to research data management, from policies to planning, to storing and sharing as appropriate, and cautions against being driven by compliance with single funder requirements. Yet it also addresses the importance of sharing data for research impact, integrity and economics. It is neatly split into two: the different approaches and elements of service provision, and case studies. The editors write the bulk of the text; the first five chapters provide an introduction and overview of elements of research data management services, challenges and issues associated with a philosophical shift to the sharing of data from traditionally private storage, to data communication and requirements for data infrastructure. The current gap between researcher requirements and currently available services is also noted, justifying this book as a guide to developing services.