The Library is Not Enough: Building the Data Governance Community at Your Institution

Abstract

While many Open Science initiatives are initiated by or hosted within academic libraries, managing data and open science practices requires the broad engagement of offices and departments across the institution. This engagement is often documented in data governance, which is “a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods” (Data Governance Institute). While data governance may be established for administrative and institutional data, such as financial or student data, the evolving policy landscape and interests in open science have created new needs related to research data governance.

While some universities have established these practices, many academic institutions are still beginning to develop or refine the guidance and support that researchers are requesting. Research data governance practices might include: creation and maintenance of data policies, developing infrastructure for data retention, establishing and refining data workflows, and ensuring that the institution meets legal, funder, and publisher obligations for open sharing. Academic librarians already provide leadership in Open Science by creating resources like institutional or data repositories, engaging in outreach and instruction with students and faculty, and fostering communities of practice across disciplines. They further bring awareness of the gaps between administrative needs, compliance requirements, and the goals of research teams. A next step for librarians is to participate in or direct data governance activities at their institution. In this recipe, we will prompt readers to identify the pantry of data governance activities present or absent at their institution and create a shopping list of goals. Some example activities might include: documenting data governance challenges present at their institution, identifying relevant policies at their institution, identify the stakeholders in those policies, identify the owners and processes for policy change/creation of standards or procedures, and engaging faculty and leaders in conversation about the policy and process gaps at their institution.