User needs assessment for research data services in a research university

Abstract

This study assesses the needs of researchers for data-related assistance and investigates their research data management behavior. A survey was conducted, and 186 valid responses were collected from faculty, researchers, and graduate students across different disciplines at a research university. The services for which researchers perceive the greatest need include assistance with quantitative analysis and data visualization. Overall, the need for data-related assistance is relatively higher among health scientists, while humanities researchers demonstrate the lowest need. This study also investigated the data formats used, data documentation and storage practices, and data-sharing behavior of researchers. We found that researchers rarely use metadata standards, but rely more on a standard file-naming scheme. As to data sharing, respondents are likely to share their data personally upon request or as supplementary materials to journal publications. The findings of this study will be useful for planning user-centered research data services in academic libraries.