Research data management training in research libraries: Current status and future directions

Research data management (RDM) has become a prominent service in research libraries. However, few studies have investigated the features, characteristics of RDM, and the practice and effect of RDM training in research libraries. This presentation is based on a scoping review that synthesizes the existing literature on RDM in research libraries in terms of substantive features, and methodological features of the included studies, characteristics of RDM audience, RDM aspects, the effect of RDM, and the learning context of RDM.
The authors searched three core databases (i.e., LISTA, ERIC, and Medline Complete)) using two core concepts: research data management and training. Synonyms for each concept were also searched. After deduplication, 1473 unique references from database and conference proceedings searches and 166 articles from the manual journal searches were screened for eligibility. Cohen’s kappa was used to assess the inter-rater reliability and the result shows almost perfect agreement on the coding between the authors.
Overall, among the included 124 articles, 140 independent studies were identified since some articles have multiple samples and employed different instruments. The findings of this study indicate: 1) for the research countries and regions of RDM related topics, most of the included studies were conducted in North America, followed by European areas, the Asian-Pacific area, and Africa, and no empirical studies from Latin America area were identified; 2) The majority of studies chose faculty, researchers, and librarians in the higher education field as the target audience and few studies targeted on students’ understanding about RDM; 3) Though only a small number of studies adopted an intervention design (13.3%), the majority of RDM interventions had positive effects on learners’ outcomes; 4) The majority of the included articles adopted a qualitative research approach whereas only a small portion of the studies employed quantitative methods or mixed methods.
Future research utilizing an intervention design that adopts a quantitative approach may be needed. This study sheds light on the approaches and techniques used to study RDM training and offers insights on how to best implement RDM training in research libraries.