How to Design a Research Data Management Platform? Technical, Organizational and Individual Perspectives and Their Relations

Academic research generates increasing amounts of data that needs to be shared between collaborators, made publicly accessible and/or archived for the long term, all while respecting applicable regulations on topics such as data protection. Good research data management (RDM) is challenging, and despite the growing number of available technical solutions, researchers have been reluctant to use them. We interviewed 64 academic researchers to elicit requirements and explore attitudes towards RDM. Although many funding bodies insist that each project follow published RDM guidelines, only about half the participants considered RDM relevant for their own work, and only one in three reported that they already practiced RDM or were planning to do so. The qualitative analysis of the transcripts revealed three broad categories of requirements for RDM platforms, namely technical, organizational and individual ones. We discuss how these requirements are related to, and sometimes contradict each other.