Challenges and Practices of Research Data Management in Selected Iraq Universities

Abstract

Research emphasises the fundamental role of research data management (RDM) in enhancing academic and scientific research. This paper intended to examine RDM in Iraqi Universities, identify the current challenges of RDM and propose influential RDM practices. Data collection employed a self-administered questionnaires distributed to 155 postgraduate students and 20 faculty members from five universities in Iraq. Research findings revealed that there is a lack of proper RDM. Postgraduate students and researchers were managing their own research data. Main challenges of maintaining a good RDM involve lack of guidelines on effective RDM practices, insufficient of adequate human resources, technological obsolescence, insecure and inefficient infrastructure, lack of financial resources, absence of research data management policies and lack of support by institutional authorities and researchers negatively influenced on research data management. Postgraduate students and researchers recommend building research data repositories and collaboration with other universities and research organisations.

A systematic literature review on research data management practices and services

“…In addition, there are some studies that inform only the available services being offered by libraries including “guidance and consultancy services” and research support services (Chiware and Becker, 2018; Faniel and Connaway, 2018; Tang and Hu, 2019). It has been reported that there are still no RDM policies in institutions of developing countries (Mohammed and Ibrahim, 2019; Tripathi et al , 2017); in contrast, Cox et al (2019) highlighted that most of the institutions in developed countries have formal RDM policies. The extracted data described how in most of the cases, the researchers stored their data in personal management devices and external hard drives.…”

“…The major three challenges are data storage, copyright issues and non/limited organizational support (Berman, 2017; Burgi et al , 2017; Chiware and Becker, 2018; Stamatopols et al , 2016; Tang and Hu, 2019; Tripathi et al , 2017). The limited number of staff and skill deficiencies was another big challenge for research support staff (Ashiq et al , 2020; Borghi and Van Gulick, 2018; Cox et al , 2019; Faniel and Connaway, 2018; Hamad et al , 2019; Mohammed and Ibrahim, 2019). Financial constraints were another big challenge reported in the studies.…”

“…The needed RDM services, skills and responsibilities were reported in 14 studies. The need for an RDM policy is the initial, basic and most reported item (Ashiq et al , 2020; Burgi et al , 2017; Mohammed and Ibrahim, 2019; Renwick et al , 2017). Tripathi et al (2017) indicated the need for a national-level research data policy in India.…”

“…All these services require skillful and highly professional research support staff (Faniel and Connaway, 2018; Hamad et al , 2019), especially skills in writing data manage plans (Pasek and Mayer, 2019; Tang and Hu, 2019; Vilar and Zabukovec, 2019). The “collaboration” was another needed skill (Faniel and Connaway, 2018; Mohammed and Ibrahim, 2019; Tripathi et al , 2017) among various campus services departments including libraries, IT departments, training department and research offices.…”

“…Other notable challenges were technological issues especially related to software, hardware and rapid change in IT, as well as the rising cost of tools. It has been noted that most of the organizations are yet to devise RDM policies (Chiware and Becker, 2018; Mohammed and Ibrahim, 2019; Perrier and Barnes, 2018; Vilar and Zabukovec, 2019). The policy-making ratio is better in developed countries as Cox et al (2019) conducted studies in eight developed countries and described that most of their institutions have formal RDM policies.…”