Research data services An exploration of requirements at two Swedish universities

• Published in: IFLA journal Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 266 - 277
• Main Authors: Lassi, Monica, Johnsson, Maria, Golub, Koraljka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2016
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap; Data services; Information Studies; Library and Information Science; Media and Communications; Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap; Metadata and semantic web; Organization of information; Samhällsvetenskap; Services to user populations; Social Sciences; Types of libraries and information providers; types of libraries and information providers; data services; organization of information; services to user populations; Academic libraries; metadata and semantic web
• ISSN: 0340-0352; 1745-2651; 1745-2651
• DOI: 10.1177/0340035216671963

The paper reports on an exploratory study of researchers’ needs for effective research data management at two Swedish universities, conducted in order to inform the ongoing development of research data services. Twelve researchers from diverse fields have been interviewed, including biology, cultural studies, economics, environmental studies, geography, history, linguistics, media and psychology. The interviews were structured, guided by the Data Curation Profiles Toolkit developed at Purdue University, with added questions regarding subject metadata. The preliminary analysis indicates that the research data management practices vary greatly among the respondents, and therefore so do the implications for research data services. The added questions on subject metadata indicate needs of services guiding researchers in describing their datasets with adequate metadata.