A recent gathering of research, education and IT experts reportedly found that there is a need for a UK Research Data Service (UKRDS), based on a 'cooperative service model'. The service would build on existing good practice in data management and fill gaps in the UK's provision. More than 700 researchers at four case study universities were interviewed as part of the investigations. Nearly 200 delegates gathered in London recently to debate the issue.
The study was funded under the HEFCE shared services programme with additional funding from JISC, Research Libraries UK and the Russell Universities Group IT directors.
According to JISC representatives, institutional repositories could fill gaps left by the lack of suitable subject repositories. If subject repositories in all disciplines cannot be created, a horizontal vision across institutional and disciplinary repositories would be required, they stated. This would include subject practitioner advice on what to save and how.
Most of the subject-specific data centres were established by researchers in response to a research need, the conference heard. Examples include protein and genome databases maintained by the European Bioinformatics Institute and environmental data centres managed by the Natural Environment Research Council. The initiative behind the UKRDS study, however, came largely from the library and information communities.
The meeting also heard that researchers are often not good at managing data beyond the lifetime of a funded project. Generally, data is never fully analysed by the researchers who generate it. Most data is stored locally if no national or international facility is available. It was also found that while 88 percent of researchers already share data, even if only with collaborators or through informal peer exchange networks, 43 percent say they would like to access others' data.
