Potential Roles for Science Librarians in Research Data Management: A Gap Analysis

Abstract

As many sciences move to be more data-intensive, some science librarians are offering more research data services and perform research data management roles. Job analyses provide insight and context to the tasks employees actually do versus what their job descriptions depict or employers assume. Two separate job analyses studies investigated the roles and responsibilities of data services librarians and research integrity officers among the top 10 private and top 10 public higher education institutions. The focus of these interviews was research data management support roles. Comparing these two groups’ responses indicates that the role-based responsibilities for research data services are not always clear within institutions and are predominantly placed on individual researchers or research teams, but science librarians may provide some solutions to address this gap. This paper presents a model for the potential roles of science librarians in research data management.