Bad habits and best practices – a survey on RDM among early career researchers

One of the Jisc Research Data Champions, who is also a Research Data Champion at the University of Cambridge, Annemarie Eckes, writes about the results of a survey that she conducted on the practices of early career researchers around data management. To learn more about the experience and work of other Research Data Champions over the last year, have a look at their presentations.

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The survey was circulated to PhD students at all stages of their PhD in the Department of Geography, Cambridge. Respondents had a period of two weeks in the beginning of July 2017 to submit their answers. Besides the survey, 1:1 semi-structured interviews were conducted to follow-up on the content of the questionnaire, but also to get a more detailed view on individual RDM stories. Trends in the surveys were discussed, alongside with the interviewee’s individual data management strategies and their preferred method of training/information delivery.

Survey Results

A total of 23 PhD students responded to the survey. Table 1 breaks down the number of participants of each cohort representing year groups. This section reports some of the results and is divided into RDM, FAIR principles and Training.

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