Abstract

This report presents the highlights a survey of research data management (RDM) practices and needs conducted at Concordia in the fall of 2015 and winter of 2016. This survey, and a series of follow-up interviews, was directed at the complete faculty population of Concordia University with the exception of three departments, Geography, Political Science and Sociology which were already consulted in a previous RDM survey conducted in 2013. The faculty from the Department of Psychology which were included in the 2013 survey, were surveyed again due to a particular interest in that group from Dr. Jennifer McGrath, one of the co-investigators.

The first section of the report deals with the results of the survey and the second section discusses the main findings of post-survey interviews conducted with researchers. In the conclusion, we discuss the main obstacles to adopting RDM best practices and upcoming developments that can inform the development of RDM services at Concordia University. We hope that this report, in conjunction with the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management will demonstrate the need for the Libraries, and for Concordia as a whole, to tackle the pressing issue of RDM.