Abstract

In the past few years, research data management (RDM) has taken increasingly center stage in the context of managing the research life cycle. Many involved in the research ecosystem, from policymakers and funders to publishers and institutions, have adopted new research data guidelines and practices. While many welcome this greater transparency, for those administrators tasked with tracking and analyzing their institution’s research outputs, this brings a unique set of challenges and can be a roadblock to an institution’s Open Data strategy. At its core, the issue of tracking an institution’s research data is particularly challenging, given that most research data get published in repositories outside of the institution*. In turn, this severely limits an institution’s ability to monitor the current data sharing practices and the progress toward Open Data. In the past months, we have engaged many institutions and discussed this challenge. We have gathered several insights about the challenge itself, as well as possible solutions to tackle that, which will be shared in this presentation. This qualitative research was carried out as a joint effort between EARMA and Elsevier.

* Zudilova-Seinstra, Elena; Zigoni, Alberto; Haak, Wouter (2020), “Analysis of research data for 11 Institutions – Data Monitor”, Mendeley Data, V3, doi: 10.17632/k5p45z33kb.3