Incentives for Building University RDM Services. The Realities of Research Data Management, Part Three. OCLC Research Report

"The Realities of Research Data Management" is a four-part series that explores how research universities are addressing the challenge of managing research data throughout the research lifecycle. The series examines the context, influences, and choices higher education institutions face in building or acquiring research data management (RDM) capacity--in other words, the infrastructure, services, and other resources needed to support emerging data management practices. Findings are based on case studies of four institutions: University of Edinburgh (UK), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (US), Monash University (Australia), and Wageningen University & Research (the Netherlands). In this third report in the series, the authors explore the incentives that inspired the acquisition of RDM capacity on the part of the four research universities described in the case studies and describe both the general patterns and context-dependent circumstances that shaped these incentives. Based on the case studies, as well as the broader RDM landscape, the authors organized these incentives into four broad categories: compliance, evolving scholarly norms, institutional strategy, and researcher demand. Key takeaways include: (1) University investment in research data management infrastructure, services, or personnel is motivated by locally relevant incentives; (2) Case study partners acted to establish RDM services in anticipation of, rather than in direct response to, researcher demand and explicit policy mandates; (3) Researcher demand and compliance with policy mandates were important factors in re-shaping and sustaining the RDM service bundle over time, but were not the key drivers for establishing RDM services in the case study institutions; (4) While the constellation of relevant incentives differs from one context to another, the acquisition or development of local RDM capacity is invariably motivated by an interest in protecting or enhancing institutional reputation and success; and (5) Consequently, the long-term sustainability of university RDM services is contingent upon alignment with institutional needs, as much as individual researcher needs. [For Part One, see ED589133. For Part Two, see ED589134. For Part Four, see ED589138. For the Supplemental, see ED589139.]