The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released Publicly Shared Data: A Gap Analysis of Researcher Actions and Institutional Support throughout the Data Life Cycle, a report from the Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) Initiative.
ARL and six academic institutions involved in the Data Curation Network (DCN) were awarded a 2021 US National Science Foundation (NSF) EAGER grant to conduct research, develop models, and collect costing information for public access to research data from funded researchers. This project is the RADS Initiative. The six RADS institutions are Cornell University, Duke University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Virginia Tech, and Washington University in St. Louis.
This new report from the RADS Initiative highlights where service gaps may exist between researchers’ data-sharing needs and the services and support provided by institutions. The report is based on data from two sources within the six RADS institutions:
- Administrators with expenditure knowledge of their units, and whose units provide data management and sharing (DMS) support to researchers, were surveyed on precisely what services and activities their units provide to enable data sharing.
- Funded researchers were surveyed on what activities they do or do not do, with or without institutional or external support, to enable sharing of their research data.
This report is particularly relevant for institutions developing strategies to support researchers effectively and efficiently in response to existing and forthcoming federal mandates on data sharing. It is also useful in institutional planning for resource allocation of research data management and sharing services towards compliance as well as broader open science objectives.
The RADS Initiative is managed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in collaboration with the Data Curation Network (DCN). This project was made possible in part by the National Science Foundation EAGER grant #2135874.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of research libraries in Canada and the US whose vision is to create a trusted, equitable, and inclusive research and learning ecosystem and prepare library leaders to advance this work in strategic partnership with member libraries and other organizations worldwide. ARL’s mission is to empower and advocate for research libraries and archives to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy. ARL develops the next generation of leaders and enables strategic cooperation among partner institutions to benefit scholarship and society. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
About the Data Curation Network
The Data Curation Network (DCN) is a membership organization of institutional and nonprofit data repositories whose vision is to advance open research by making data more ethical, reusable, and understandable. The DCN’s mission is to empower researchers to publish high-quality data in an ethical and FAIR way, collaboratively advance the art and science of data curation by creating, adopting, and openly sharing best practices, and supporting thoughtful, innovative, and inclusive data-curation training and professional development opportunities. The DCN is based at the University of Minnesota. Learn more at datacurationnetwork.org.
About the US National Science Foundation
The US National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the US as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities, and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and US participation in international scientific efforts.
