A pilot study on social science graduate students' data core competency

Abstract

In the field of research, teaching graduate students how to manage data on a regular basis is becoming increasingly crucial. However, there is a lack of adequate evidence in the literature to determine the necessity of Research Data Management (RDM) training from the perspectives of social science student researchers. To address this gap, a pilot study was conducted to develop a data core competency measure to gauge the perceived importance of data competency among social science graduate students and assess their data core competency. Forty graduate students in a college of education at an US research university filled out a researcher-designed data core competency survey. This pilot study found that graduate students in the social sciences do not generally appreciate RDM. Consequently, the results underscore the need to foster an environment in graduate social science programs that value RDM best practices. The study suggested that future studies build on the preliminary findings by developing standardized data core competency measures.