The role of research university libraries in research data management: The case of Türkiye

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the current situation of research data management (RDM) services within the framework of data management responsibilities, policies, budget and resource competencies in libraries at research universities in Türkiye. The study also aims to present the potential of researchers from research universities to store and share their research data in data archives. Within the scope of the research, interviews were conducted with 15 participants who are responsible or have the potential to be responsible for the processes related to the RDM. In addition, the records of researchers, who are members of research universities, transferred to Zenodo and Aperta were examined within the scope of the study. According to the results, the amount of shared data sets in Zenodo and Aperta was quite small. However, almost all of the data transferred to these data archives is open access. Findings based on participant opinions showed that tools and techniques such as cloud storage, modern techniques, devices, and service providers, as well as resources such as budget, infrastructure and personnel for RDM are not sufficient at research universities in Türkiye. It is thought that this study will draw attention to the benefits of RDM services for universities by revealing what kind of roles the libraries affiliated with research universities play in the process of RDM.