Research data management practice in higher education institutions in Ethiopia

Abstract

There is increasing pressure from funders, publishers, the public and other research organizations on researchers to improve their research data management. The main objective of the study was to examine the practices of research data management at higher education institutions in Ethiopia. The study was employed multi-stage sampling technique to select the actual sample unit of respondents. Eight first generation Universities and one Science and Technology University were selected based on purposive sampling technique. 390 faculty member and 119 stakeholder respondents were selected based on simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The findings revealed that majority of faculty members were used and produced spreadsheet and structured scientific and statistical research data formats. Majority of faculty members were used their personal device to hold their research data. The findings indicated that majority of faculty members were identified their needs of research data management services such as, data management template, storage facilities, research data management policy, guidelines and providing training. The level of awareness on research data management among faculty members was very low. The study concludes that proper research data management is not being practiced. Further research can be done on research data management framework at higher education institutions.