The Research Data Services Landscape at US and Canadian Higher Education Institutions. Report

Research data services--support offerings which enable and improve data-intensive research--have garnered sustained attention from library research support service providers for nearly two decades. Because of the critical role they play in supporting research on college and university campuses across the country, particularly at research intensive universities, research data services have more recently become a central area of concern for an increased number of stakeholders, including offices of research, campus IT, and other units involved in the research enterprise. Despite the widespread recognition of their importance, however, the development of research data services has been largely ad hoc, lacking cohesive cross-campus collaborations or strategic frameworks. As a result, many data-related services are siloed, difficult to locate, and available informally or by word of mouth, leaving researchers and administrators confused about the availability of data research support offerings, where they are located, and who can access them. The resulting opacity is a major barrier to better coordinating these offerings to minimize inefficiencies while continuing to offer services that are ready to adapt to researchers' evolving support needs. Ithaka S+R has been following trends in research data services for several years as part of their research into the support needs associated with data-intensive research methodologies. In 2020, Ithaka S+R conducted a pilot project to inventory research data support services in the United States. This study revealed broad patterns and trends in the distribution and provision of research data services at US higher education institutions and marked an important first step toward understanding the quality, relevance, and capacity of university-based research data services. Since the publication of the 2020 inventory, foundations and the federal governments in both the US and Canada have increased requirements around data management and sharing. As a result, the need for universities to develop an efficient infrastructure of research data services is an even more urgent strategic priority now than it was in 2020. Yet even as the pressure on universities has grown, provisioning such services remains a challenge. While many universities have made substantial investments in research data services and are likely to continue to make further investments, obstacles such as decentralization and inefficiency, insufficient staffing, lack of technical expertise, and ambiguity about the needs of researchers continue to limit the impact of these investments. In light of these persistent challenges, and in the interest of providing up-to-date data to inform university decision making, Ithaka S+R revisited the inventory and expanded the scope to include Canadian universities. The new inventory findings are part of a larger collaboration with 29 research universities focused on coordinating research data services offered across campus and aligning them with the evolving needs of their research communities. These findings are based on a comprehensive review of data services offered at a representative sample of 120 US institutions (including R1, R2, and liberal arts colleges), and eight institutional members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).