How To Register A Research Institute In Zimbabawe

Accepted on 09 Jun 2017Submitted on 06 January 2017

Introduction

The world has seen academy libraries positioning themselves to support and gain dominance on data management issues ( Buys & Shaw 2015 ; Tenopir, Sandusky, Allard & Birch 2014 ; Whitmire, Boock, & Sutton 2015 ). This follows upon realising the importance of research information and proper enquiry information management. Governments and funding organisations are increasingly enervating researchers to properly shop and share data ( Buys & Shaw 2015 ; Corti, Van den Eynden, Bishop & Woollard 2011 ; Kennan & Markauskaite 2015 ). Skillful information management is important as facilitates verification of research results thereby making it easier for other researchers to build on the existing research ( Corti, Van den Eynden, Bishop & Woollard 2011 ). Currently, there is no evidence to bear witness how research institutions are managing research data in Zimbabwe although a lot of research activities are being done. The research was aimed at evaluating how research information are being managed in research institutions in Republic of zimbabwe and assess the challenges faced in enquiry data management by research institutions in Zimbabwe.

Inquiry data

The term research data was defined by Rice ( 2009 ) equally data 'collected, observed or created for the purposes of analysing to produce original research results'. Nevertheless, Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ) went farther to propose that the information may not necessarily be used for research lone since the data include authoritative records, log files of learning management systems and web portals and other behavioural traces used in learning analytics and traces of private lives available from social media.

According to Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ), research information, merely similar data sources, are heterogeneous considering of the many forms depending on origins, research problem addressed and the discipline of the researcher. The authors note that in the life and physical sciences, researchers gather and produce data mostly through observations, experiments and estimator modelling whilst in the social sciences researchers gather and produce data from interviews, surveys and questionnaires, and observations. The University of Essex ( 2017 ) listed several research data formats that include HTML, XML, MP4, MP3, JPEG, TIFF, CSV, Physician, PDF and TXT.

Research data management

According to Whyte & Tedds ( 2011 ), 'Research data direction concerns the organisation of data, from its entry to the research cycle through to the dissemination and archiving of valuable results. Information technology aims to ensure reliable verification of results, and permits new and innovative research built on existing data'.

Research data management is important because data are a valuable resources whose production requires time and coin ( Corti, Van den Eynden, Bishop & Woollard 2011 ). As a consequence, Corti, et al. ( 2011 ) put not bad emphasis on enquiry data sharing because this enables scientific research and fence, promotes innovation, transparency and accountability, examination of inquiry findings, validation of research methods, avoiding duplicating data drove, enquiry visibility, collaborations between and among data users and data creators. This would enable other researchers to discover, interpret and reuse the data as well equally to sustain the value of the data past enabling others to verify and build upon the published results.

Corti, et al. ( 2011 ) suggested that best practise research data management should address issues relating to which information will exist generated during research, metadata, standards and quality balls measures, modalities for sharing and securing data, ethical and legal issues relating to information sharing that include copyright and intellectual property rights of information, data storage and fill-in, resources and costs associated with data management and, data management roles and responsibilities. Therefore, a data direction programme addressing all these issues must be in place.

Fary & Owen ( 2013 ) stressed the importance of agreement the information lifecycle. The lifecycle informs data direction for any establishment. Fary & Owen ( 2013 ) summarised various information lifecycle models with their model presented in Figure 1 below.

Figure one

Information lifecycle model ( Fary & Owen 2013 ).

Tenopir, Sandusky, Allard & Birch ( 2014 ) acknowledged that at that place has been increasing need for libraries and librarians to play a leading office in research information management. The authors went further to give examples of new roles of librarians every bit a outcome of this new development. The new roles would see librarians as managers of information, datasets and data curation managers. Surkis & Read ( 2015 ) concurred and with Tenopir, et al. ( 2014 ) and further noted that librarians at present provide a range of services in research data management that include pedagogy data management to researchers, assisting researchers to improve their data management practices, creating data management subject guides, and assisting in supporting funding agency and publisher data requirements.

According to Tenopir, Sandusky, Allard & Birch (2012) majority of librarians strongly felt that they take a responsibility of providing inquiry data services to patrons and to increment institutional visibility and research impact. Tenopir, et al. ( 2015 ) found out that of those libraries offering inquiry data services, librarians, committees and departments were responsible for research data services planning. The results also stressed that out of the 128 directors, 83.7% stated that librarians should be stewards of all types of scholarships including information sets; 68.six% indicated that losing data sets jeopardise time to come of scholarship while 76.7% pointed out that library needs to offer research data services to remain relevant to the establishment. Surkis & Read ( 2015 ) stressed the importance of librarians in data management because there has been a prototype shift from primarily focussing on publications as the merely of import inquiry output equally per past tradition towards recognising that research data are an important output of the research process. Every bit such, interest of librarians in information management has become then important as it facilitates data discoverability, accessibility, and understandability.

Challenges faced in research data management

Corti, Van den Eynden, Bishop & Woollard ( 2011 ) observed that research data direction is not an easy task and data centres may non accept all data submitted to them; institutional repositories may not afford long-term maintenance of information, more complex research data may be difficult to store and manage and some websites are ephemeral with little sustainability.

Harvey (2010) as cited by Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ) identified the following challenges associated with digital data management:

Technology obsolescence;
Technology fragility;
Lack of guidelines on skilful practice;
Inadequate financial and homo resource to manage information well; and,
Lack of evidence about best infrastructures.

Apply of different vocabulary between librarians and researchers also hinders collaboration betwixt these two players ( Surkis & Read 2015 ). The cultures of the erstwhile and the latter are different. Every bit Surkis & Read ( 2015 ) noted, researchers speak the language of research non the language of libraries.

In lodge to solve some of the challenges mentioned in a higher place, there is demand to include all the data management stakeholders from the initial stages of the inquiry to ensure that at that place is order throughout the inquiry lifecycle. These include master researcher or investigator, establishment, data repository, user, funder, and publisher. If a researcher has a data management plan, it would aid to describe the data produced during the enquiry project as it outlines the strategies that would be implemented during the active phase of the research and after the project is complete. The data management programme may be one of the requirements to be submitted to funding agencies during the proposal stage.

Although Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ) reported that in that location were inadequate human resources to manage information, a written report carried out by Tenopir, et al. in 2012 revealed that 78% of the respondents for whom research data service was regarded as core of their duties indicated that they had the necessary skills, knowledge and grooming on research data direction. Tenopir et al. ( 2016 ) concurred with Tenopir et al. (2012) that libraries offer opportunities for staff for enquiry data services skills development past fashion of conferences, workshops, inquiry data services related courses, professional evolution working groups and in business firm workshops and presentations.

Policies and guidelines on research information management

Section 2 of the Australian Lawmaking for the Responsible Carry of Inquiry states that 'policies are required that address the ownership of enquiry materials and information, their storage, their retention beyond the stop of the project, and appropriate admission to them by the enquiry community' ( Australian National Data Service, 2015 ). The National Academy of Singapore ( 2016 ) stated that the pattern and adoption of policies for inquiry data management help to safeguard valuable information. The policy helps to answer allegations of enquiry misconduct and assists in the protection of intellectual property.

Libraries play a disquisitional part in the implementation of inquiry data policies, for example, the University of Leeds ( 2016 ) and the University of Manchester libraries ( 2016 ) host the Research Information Management policies of the universities. These libraries provide a research data management service to back up researchers. Monash Academy ( 2013 ) stated that the purpose of a inquiry data direction policy is "to ensure that research information is stored, retained, made accessible for use and reuse, and/or disposed of, according to legal, statutory, upstanding and funding bodies' requirements." The Research Information Management Policy at Monash University is administered past the library. The Australian National Information Service ( 2015 ) suggested an outline for a research information management policy for Australian Universities/Institutions. They stated that the document 'is intended as a basic starting signal for institutions that are intending to write, or update, their research data management policy. It is intended to be informative, non prescriptive.' As a result, the document can too be used by other inquiry institutions in creating their own policies.

Tenopir et al. ( 2016 ) in a survey of directors of Association of European Research Libraries found out that almost all libraries interact with organisations within and outside the institutions in order to offering or develop policy related to enquiry data services. They reported that Librarians collaborate with researchers, it centres, inquiry offices, university archives, and legal offices.

Evolution of research data repository

Grace, Whyte & Rans ( 2015 ) stated that there is demand to know where the repository will be housed inside a research institution. At the University of East London, for example, the research committee provides full general oversight for inquiry data direction and it includes representation from senior academics and services departments including the library, information technology (IT), and enquiry evolution support. The authors added that there is need to choose a platform to utilise and the hosting service to run the repository. The University of Oxford used a articulation arroyo to develop its research information management repository whereby the library focused on preservation and open up access; IT services cared about infrastructure; and research services supporting funding trunk compliance. ( Wilson, Fraser, Martinez-Uribe, Patrick, Akram & Mansoori: 2010 ). Throughout the process, Wilson et al. ( 2010 ) emphasised that there is need for data documentation, support and grooming, secure storage and linking data to the publication. Tenopir et al. ( 2016 ) stated that Librarians provide data storage facilities, tools for data analysis and virtual customs support.

There is need to register the research data repository with the Registry of Enquiry Information Repositories (re3data). This covers the inquiry data repositories from dissimilar academic disciplines and it represents repositories for the permanent storage and admission of datasets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions ( Registry of Research Data Repositories 2016 ). Every bit at thirteen April 2016, the registry had listed 1500 repositories. It offers an artery to select appropriate repositories for the storage and search of research data ( Registry of Research Data Repositories 2016 ).

Research objectives

The report sought to:

Evaluate how inquiry data are being managed in research institutions in Zimbabwe.
Assess the challenges that are faced in research information managed by research institutions in Zimbabwe.

Materials and methods

The study focussed on research institutions in Zimbabwe. A population of 25 enquiry institutions were purposively selected that is, 16 institutions of higher learning and nine organisations that deal with research. The study was approved by the Enquiry and Postgraduate Centre at the Bindura University of Scientific discipline Pedagogy who provided the support letter to acquit out the research. Informed consent was sought from the participants. This was indicated in the introductory part of the questionnaire and the telephone interview. Respondents consented to participate in the report. Personal identifiable data was anonymised for confidentiality purposes. Responses were received from 23 institutions which are 16 institutions of higher learning and seven enquiry institutions. The population was composed of librarians, researchers, information officers and records managers and the institutions participating in the study were given the discretion to engage the respondent. The breakdown of the respondents by profession were as follows: one researcher, two information officers, and xx librarians. The study was conducted in mid-2016 using an online survey focusing on prevailing research information management practices. A link to the online questionnaire on SurveyMonkey was sent to all the participants. Fourteen responded to the online questionnaire on fourth dimension and telephone interviews were washed to follow up on nine participants who had failed to reply on fourth dimension. The data that was collected using telephone interviews was entered manually into SurveyMonkey for like shooting fish in a barrel analysis. The iii respondents who indicated that they had enquiry information repositories were phoned to seek further clarification on how they are managing research data. One of the three respondents consented to a site visit which was done. The SurveyMonkey database was used to analyse the data which was then presented in tables and figures.

Results

The findings showed that researchers are responsible for managing their inquiry data within their institutions every bit shown in Figure ii. One institution indicated that enquiry data management is the responsibleness of the research ethics committee and the other one the responsibility of the records managers. In terms of the availability of an institutional policy on research data management, 19 institutions indicated that they do not accept a policy. Out of the five institutions that indicated that they have policies, merely three have a research data repository in place; the oldest data repository was established in 2013 while the latest one was set up in 2016. For the three institutions that indicated that they accept inquiry data repositories, various professionals were involved in setting up the repository. The results showed that researchers and development partners were involved in setting up the enquiry data repository in 2 research institutions. In the other institutions, librarians and information engineering personnel were involved. However, records managers and research officers were non involved in setting upwards the repositories. Those institutions with research information repositories indicated that more than one section manage the repository that is the inquiry office, information technology department, library and records centre. All the repositories are neither available on the Internet nor registered with the Registry of Research Data Repositories.

Figure two

Professionals responsible for research data management.

The respondents indicated that the reasons for keeping research data solely depend with the researchers in most institutions every bit shown by 14 respondents in the study. Simply ane participant indicated that it is a requirement by publishers. The results showed that participants store the research data as text documents, spreadsheets, graphics, audio, databases, video, software applications and structured text. No enquiry institution utilise software awarding source lawmaking or configuration data in storing research data. Seventeen institutions indicated that they exercise not archive research data which means that inquiry data are destroyed soon after the information are analysed. Just one institution stated that they archive research data for a year or less as indicated in Effigy 3.

Figure three

Research data retentivity catamenia.

Eleven respondents indicated that the choice to dispose the inquiry data lies with the researcher, while six respondents pointed out that they erase the data from storage devices, four stated that they transfer research data to the records offices or archives, three shred the inquiry data, three do permanent preservation and finally one indicated that there is no defined research data direction at their establishment. This is shown on Effigy 4.

Figure 4

Inquiry data disposal methods.

The findings showed that accessibility of the enquiry data in eight institutions is provided for researchers and other partners. In five institutions, researchers make up one's mind who tin access their research data, two participants stated that inquiry data tin be accessed by anyone, while i respondent indicated that admission to research information depends on the information privacy nomenclature. The challenges that are faced in research institutions in the direction of research data are lack of guidelines on good practice, inadequate human resources, technological obsolescence, security, employ of different vocabulary between librarians and researchers, inadequate financial resources, lack of institutional support and unavailability of software for enquiry information management at the institution. To mitigate these challenges, respondents indicated that they limit access to research data, conduct grooming, establish research policy, office and ideals committee, purchase online data management systems, and utilise the bachelor equipment.

Discussion

The findings revealed that research data direction is still a new concept to research institutions in Zimbabwe. Researchers are currently managing their ain research information. This is in contrast with the findings from the studies by Tenopir et al. (2012, 2014 , and 2016 ), Surkis and Read ( 2015 ) who reported that libraries in America and Europe have taken inquiry information management as a key component of their duties and responsibilities. This implies that libraries in Zimbabwe take to take up research data management equally role of their services.

Almost of the research information were in textual format, spreadsheet format and graphical format that included images. Some of the enquiry data were also reported to exist in audio, video, database, structured text formats and software applications. The UK Data Annal ( University of Essex 2017 ) acknowledges the availability of various formats of inquiry information and the ones identified in this inquiry were listed by the UK Data Archive.

Information technology was constitute out that access to bachelor research data is even so a claiming considering that nearly of the research data is under the custody of the researchers. These findings differ from what Tenopir, et al. ( 2016 ) observed in European and American academic and research libraries whereby librarians were actively involved in research data management making access to inquiry data easier. They also indicated that librarians at these institutions collaborated with researchers, information engineering personnel, legal offices and university archives in research information direction. This promoted seamless admission to research data. Nevertheless, simply a few research institutions in Republic of zimbabwe have started to manage inquiry data and the data are simply available on local area networks for access past a limited population.

There are a number of challenges being faced by research institutions relating to inquiry information direction key amid them the lack of guidelines on good practice, inadequate human resource, technological obsolescence and insecure infrastructure. These challenges relating to inconsistencies and complexities in bachelor information are in tandem with what is currently prevailing elsewhere ( Corti, et al. 2011 ). Similarly, Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ) pointed out that digital information management was affected by technological obsolescence, security, inadequate human being resources, lack of guidelines on good practice, and lack of evidence about all-time infrastructures. Simply as Surkis and Read ( 2015 ) noted, use of different vocabulary between librarians and researchers remains a challenge in enquiry information management in Zimbabwe. This study confirms an assertion past Kennan & Markauskaite ( 2015 ) that librarians involved in research data management faced challenges to do with inadequate financial resources, absenteeism of research data management policies and lack of support by institutional authorities and researchers have besides negatively impacted on inquiry information. The findings ostend that the challenges facing librarians involved in research data management beyond the world are the aforementioned despite the experience one would have with inquiry data management.

In the absence of proper research data direction, the challenges cited above were faced. Absenteeism of proper inquiry information management vis-à-vis the availability of research data in diverse formats cited above exacerbates the challenges faced in managing enquiry data in Zimbabwe. However, a number of solutions were employed to solve these challenges. Training on research data management was introduced so every bit to improve librarians, researchers, research officers and records managers' competencies in handling enquiry data. Literature consulted (Tenopir, et al. 2012, 2016 ) buttresses the importance of grooming librarians on enquiry information direction to ensure effective research data service delivery. In fact, Tenopir et al. ( 2016 ) testify that even libraries with well-established research data services offered their staff opportunities for skills evolution for improved service delivery. Admission to research data was likewise restricted to selected users to avoid unauthorised access, data loss and corruption. Some institutions established research ethics committees and research offices to steer good inquiry data direction practices and spearhead the crafting of research data direction policies.

Determination and recommendations

Research data management is yet a relatively new concept in Zimbabwe'south enquiry institutions as compared to other institutions in the developed countries. However, the concept is very of import and librarians, research officers, records managers, it professionals and researchers need to explore the concept and so equally to finer participate in good research data management practice. Authors recommend the establishment of inquiry data repositories or the utilize of already established research data repositories that are registered with the Registry of Research Data Repositories to ensure that research data direction standards are adhered to when doing research. There is also need to partner with international organisations such as DataCite and Research Information Alliance as these forums would assistance Zimbabwean research institutions in managing research data professionally.