Leveraging socio-technical processes to support researchers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this project was to develop research support services that address local and external research data management (RDM) support drivers within the existing organizational culture at the University of Florida. The goal was to prompt organization change to support a campus-wide electronic lab notebook.

Design/methodology/approach

This project used a mixed-methods research approach to cultivate an organizational change program that support technological infrastructure to benefit researchers. The mixed-methods research involved participation action research integrated with a stakeholder approach.

Findings

The development of the grant proposal which was unfunded led to development of continued project goals. This project confirmed the development for support for an institution-wide electronic research notebook (ERN) solution requires adherence to the summary of five key actions for developing RDM services. Failure to complete all of the key actions engenders fragmentation culture.

Research limitations/implications

This project includes implications for institutions to develop grant proposals with integrated budgets for research support services of funded projects; and to use the summary of key actions for developing RDM services articulated by Jones et al. (2013) in “How to Develop RDM Services – a guide for HEIs.” Both are need to support findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data for researchers.

Practical implications

This project has practical implications for higher education institutions interested in leveraging socio-technical processes to advance the role of libraries as collaborator, partner and stakeholder in developing institution-wide adoption, support and training for ERN as a research support service to RDM.

Social implications

This paper contributes to the body of developing literature on ERN as support services to RDM lead by academic research libraries.

Originality/value

This project contributed to the change in organization culture resulting in the successful collaboration between the Research Office and College of Medicine to support an institution-wide ERN technological infrastructure for one year as a pilot at a large academic research institution in the southeast USA.

Citation

Smith II, P.L. (2023), "Leveraging socio-technical processes to support researchers", Digital Library Perspectives, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 267-292. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-03-2022-0023