Scoping the University RDM Service Bundle. The Realities of Research Data Management, Part Two. OCLC Research Report

"The Realities of Research Data Management" is a series of four reports looking at the context, influences and choices research universities face in building or acquiring research data management (RDM) capacity. The findings are derived from detailed case studies of four research universities, hailing from four distinct national contexts: the University of Edinburgh (UK), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (US), Monash University (Australia), and Wageningen University & Research (the Netherlands). This report looks at the RDM service bundles of the four universities to better understand how the local RDM service bundle is shaped by the complex interplay of internal and external factors, institutional requirements, and local choices. In reviewing the experiences of the four case study institutions, a common theme emerged: RDM is not a monolithic set of services duplicated across universities; it is a customized solution shaped by a range of internal and external factors operating on local decision-making. An important corollary to this finding is that scoping an RDM service bundle sufficient to meet institutional needs does not necessarily mean implementing the full range of services within the RDM service space. This report explores these findings in the context of the case study partners, examining how each university scoped their local RDM service bundle in light of each institution's broader institutional and external environments. In each case, the choices made--and the resulting RDM service bundle--reflect the particular circumstances of the university in question. While each university is unique, other institutions may see something of themselves in one or more of the universities examined, and the case studies may serve as models or patterns to inform local RDM planning in other contexts. [For Part One, see ED589133. For Part Three, see ED589137. For Part Four, see ED589138. For the Supplemental, see ED589139.]