Across Canada, across disciplines: Research data management practices and needs in the social sciences and humanities Leanne Trimble1, Dylanne Dearborn1, Tatiana Zaraiskaya 2, Jane Burpee3, Eugene Barsky4 , Catie Sahadath5, Melissa Cheung5, Marjorie Mitchell4 , Matthew Gertler1 1University of Toronto, 2Queen's University, 3McGill University, 4University of British Columbia, 5University of Ottawa IASSIST 2017 Context Who is involved? Methods - data collection and analysis "Clipboard" icon by Annette Spithoven from Noun Project https://thenounproject.com/term/clipboard/186519/ Demographics Respondents by institution n=437 Breakdown by discipline n=437 Respondents by rank n=437 Working with Research Data Storage volume, by number of research projects Types of research data generated Storage media used Documentation & description of data n=413 n=412 Is there sufficient documentation and description (e.g., variable and field definitions, codebooks, data dictionaries, metadata, scripts to run) for another person outside your research team to: How long data is kept? Sharing Research Data Current sharing methods vs Future sharing methods Sharing restrictions ● “Privacy or ethics restrictions” (37.8%) was the most identified restriction ○ Highest in Education (82.4%) and the Social Sciences (SS) (45.1%) ● “Needing to apply for a patent” was only selected by one researcher (SS) ● Low number of responses identifying “commercial concerns” ○ Only Business/Management (15.4%) and Law (6.7%) had higher response rates ● Low across board for “public safety/sensitive data” (all <=6%) Perceived benefits & Reasons for not sharing Funding Mandates & RDM Services Drafting a data management plan n=396 Level of interest in services from libraries Digital Humanities/ Digital Scholarship DIGITAL HUMANITIES OR DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP (DS), can be defined as the collection and use of digital research data (either through digitization of print resources, or using born-digital resources) combined with methodologies from traditional Humanities and Social Science scholarship. Do you feel your research falls under this definition? Yes: 41% (n=176) No: 39% (n=165) Not Sure: 20% (n=85) Nature of Digital Scholars’ Data Data topics taught in digital scholarship Summary: Key findings ● Data being produced: ○ Most commonly text; small storage sizes (i.e. requirements are not complex) ● Knowledge gaps: ○ Data storage: range of non-optimal storage options in use ○ Over half were not confident about the quality of their documentation ● Sharing: ○ Plan to share more in the future than they do now ○ Privacy/ethics most common reason for not sharing ○ Strong awareness of the benefits of sharing ● Interest in support from libraries: ○ 87% would like/need some support in drafting DMPs ○ Large proportion of respondents expressed interest in services from the library in general ● Some variance in disciplinary responses - useful for targeting services Lessons learned ● Conducting a survey with both local and consortial goals can be a challenge ○ Survey design must consider local and group needs ○ Group data management planning ○ Wrangling data from different institutions ○ Communication with partners is key ● Portage clearinghouse aims to improve this process for additional institutions joining the project Humanities & Social Sciences Engineering & Science Health & Medical Sciences Future steps... Survey templates, data and reports will be made available on the Portage website How the data can be used ● Informing institutional decisions, e.g. shaping services ● Informing national initiatives, e.g Portage, funding agencies Data, templates and reports available: https://goo.gl/VD5hTY Hosted by Portage, https://portagenetwork.ca/ https://goo.gl/VD5hTY https://goo.gl/VD5hTY https://portagenetwork.ca/ Acknowledgements - data contributors ● Queen’s University ○ Alexandra Cooper ● University of British Columbia ○ Sheryl Adam, Megan Meredith-Lobay ● University of Ottawa ○ Jessica McEwan, Patrick Labelle ● University of Toronto ○ Leslie Barnes, Nadia Muhe ● University of Waterloo ○ Kathy Szigeti, Sandra Keys Questions?