Open AccessDoctoral Students' Educational Needs in Research Data Management: Perceived Importance and Current Competencies
Author(s) -
Jukka Rantasaari
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of digital curation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1746-8256
DOI - 10.2218/ijdc.v16i1.684
Subject(s) - rdm , documentation , usable , data collection , knowledge management , competence (human resources) , medical education , data sharing , qualitative property , data management , computer science , psychology , pedagogy , sociology , world wide web , medicine , database , social psychology , social science , alternative medicine , pathology , machine learning , programming language
Sound research data management (RDM) competencies are elementary tools used by researchers to ensure integrated, reliable, and re-usable data, and to produce high quality research results. In this study, 35 doctoral students and faculty members were asked to self-rate or rate doctoral students’ current RDM competencies and rate the importance of these competencies. Structured interviews were conducted, using close-ended and open-ended questions, covering research data lifecycle phases such as collection, storing, organization, documentation, processing, analysis, preservation, and data sharing. The quantitative analysis of the respondents’ answers indicated a wide gap between doctoral students’ rated/self-rated current competencies and the rated importance of these competencies. In conclusion, two major educational needs were identified in the qualitative analysis of the interviews: to improve and standardize data management planning, including awareness of the intellectual property and agreements issues affecting data processing and sharing; and to improve and standardize data documenting and describing, not only for the researcher themself but especially for data preservation, sharing, and re-using. Hence the study informs the development of RDM education for doctoral students.