European Landscape Study of Research Data Management

"The European Landscape Study of Research Data Management offers an overview of how to effectively support researchers in their data management. It looks at interventions by funding agencies, research institutions, national bodies and publishers across the European Union member states. The report also makes recommendations that organisations can adopt to help their researchers. Support Infrastructure Models for Research Data Management The European Landscape Study of Research Data Management, carried out by SURF, is part of the European SIM4RDM project (Support Infrastructure Models for Research Data Management). The aim of this project is to equip researchers with the knowledge, skills and support infrastructures they need to adopt good research data management practices. The Landscape study is the first step towards a ‘cookbook’ for implementing research data management. Together with the project partners, SURF will work on case studies that will be the proof of the pudding. Recommendations for all stakeholders The Landscape study offers recommendations for all stakeholders. These recommendations are being incorporated in an European intervention and evaluation framework for Horizon 2020. An overview of recommendations follows: [1] National research organisations could take the lead in drafting a national code of conduct which encourages the creation and use of data management plans, suggest and supply appropriate tooling and take an active role in data citation practices. [2] Funding bodies should encourage researchers by offering clear instructions to create a data management plan at the level of the project proposal and they can designate centres to store research data. In the Netherlands both NWO and ZonMw are working on a policy, instructions and support for researchers. [3] The number of research institutions using a data management policy is growing. Many institutions offer an infrastructure to store, manage and access research data comprising a variety of file storage and library systems. In the Netherlands more and more universities are setting up data management support services. [4] Interviews with researchers show that policies should primarily cover roles and responsibilities for managing data, mechanisms for storage, backup, registration, deposit and retention of research data, access to re-use of data, open accessibility and availability of data and long term preservation and curation. [5] Not many publishers have a policy in place yet. The policies that do exist require links to the data underlying the article or to make entire datasets available when submitting the article, but not to keep them up to date. A dialogue should be established with publishers and publishers’ associations about the definition of data policies. Possible elements are persistent identifiers for citation of data and requirements of reliability for repositories in which data are to be deposited ..."