In 2016, the Research & Learning Services department took on a campuswide research project. The goal of this project was to determine how new, tenure-track faculty manage their data. We recently spoke with Cinthya Ippoliti, Associate Dean for Research & Learning Services, about this research into data management and how to better the management process across the Oklahoma State campus.
For this research, the group interviewed 31 faculty across campus. They were pleased to receive feedback from 12 percent of those who received an invitation.
Participants were asked questions like:
- Do any of your funding sources require you to draft a management plan?
- What type of data do you generate?
- How often and how do you share your data with others?
- What happens to your data after the research project has concluded?
Once all the feedback was collected, the faculty responses were divided among RLS librarians, examined and condensed to a spreadsheet for ease of access. Upon its completion, the group met to discuss the results that surfaced during the interview process. They found that most of the participants did not have a data management plan in place and mainly stored their data on hard drives.
From this, the group discovered several needs. These included data storage solutions for smaller data sets; training on creating data management plans, file naming conventions and file organization schemas; and answers to questions about data sharing and re-purposing methods and tools.
Using a design-thinking process, the group developed ideas to better the Research Data Services program and provide data management solutions for researchers. There is now an outlet of resources for managing data and developing the skills necessary to increase impact of research findings.
The services offered by the Research Data Services are data information literacy, data storage and management support; metadata & documentation, institutional repository and data visualization; research impact, workshops and consultations.
Cinthya Ippoliti specializes in the workshops, consultations and data management plans, and Nicole Sump-Crethar works with metadata, institutional repository and data curation. Both can be contacted through Research Data Services.
Post by Jennifer Barnett, E-Communications Intern for OSU Library Communications
