Needs Assessment on Research Data Management at Charité 2021/22

The survey aimed to assess the current practices and needs of researchers with regard to RDM. In addition, questions were asked about motivation and attitudes, utilisation of services and knowledge of existing regulations and incentive measures. The outcomes are now being used in the planning and improvement of RDM infrastructures and services at the Charité and in the BUA overall.

At Charité, the QUEST Project Team Open Data and Research Data Management, together with the QUEST Project Team Programme Evaluation, evaluated the current status of RDM at the Charité for the first time. Results from 471 completed datasets are available in a dynamic survey report at https://quest-fdm-umfrage.charite.de. The complete survey report, raw quantitative data, and analysis code are published in Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6980024).

This survey was part of the project “Concept Development for Collaborative Research Data Management Services”, funded by the BUA. A subset of 10 questions was asked at all four BUA institutions. The survey report for all institutions combined was also published in Zenodo. The survey is one of several surveys on RDM at German research institutions. By the end of 2022, a total of 19 universities and six joint projects had carried out institutional and cross-institute assessments on RDM in German speaking countries.

Methodology

An online survey with 49 questions (39 exclusively at the Charité and 10 across the BUA) was aimed at affiliated researchers, doctoral students and research support staff who work with digital research data. Participants were e-mailed in English and German from December 7, 2021 to January 19, 2022 and received personalised links for survey participation. The data protection officer and the staff council of the Charité approved the survey and the RDM team implemented methodological steps to ensure anonymity described in detail in the survey report. The survey results were processed and analysed using R statistical language, and quantitative data were published in the Zenodo repository along with the analysis code at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6980024. A detailed description of the methodology (in German) can be found here.