Abstract
The Data Stewardship project is a new initiative from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. Its aim is to create mature working practices and policies regarding research data management across all TU Delft faculties. The novelty of this project relies on having a dedicated person, the so-called ‘Data Steward’, embedded in each faculty to approach research data management from a more discipline-specific perspective. It is within this framework that a research data management survey was carried out at the faculties that had a Data Steward in place by July 2018. The goal was to get an overview of the general data management practices, and use its results as a benchmark for the project. The total response rate was 11 to 37% depending on the faculty. Overall, the results show similar trends in all faculties, and indicate lack of awareness regarding different data management topics such as automatic data backups, data ownership, relevance of data management plans, awareness of FAIR data principles and usage of research data repositories. The results also show great interest towards data management, as more than ~80% of the respondents in each faculty claimed to be interested in data management training and wished to see the summary of survey results. Thus, the survey helped identified the topics the Data Stewardship project is currently focusing on, by carrying out awareness campaigns and providing training at both university and faculty levels.
Highlights
The importance of effective research data management (RDM) and sharing practices in research is nowadays highly recognised by funding bodies, governments, publishers and research institutions
In the Netherlands, this has been reflected in the National Plan Open Science1 (NPOS), signed in 2017 by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), and in the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity published in October 2018.2
Proper data management practices facilitates the path for Open Science and responsibly data sharing
Summary
The importance of effective research data management (RDM) and sharing practices in research is nowadays highly recognised by funding bodies, governments, publishers and research institutions. In the Netherlands, the Dutch government declared that Open Science and Open Access should be the norm (Regeerakkoord, 2017–2021). The two major national funding bodies, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), have detailed requirements for data management and data sharing as part of their research grant conditions (NWO, 2016; ZonMW, 2018). Research institutions have recognised the importance and necessity of good data management and transparency in research. In the Netherlands, this has been reflected in the National Plan Open Science (NPOS), signed in 2017 by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), and in the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity published in October 2018.2
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
