A novel framework for user-centered research data management

Recent Open Data policies have led to a large-scale demand for research data repositories. Research data repositories are expected to function as an important instrument for research data preservation as well as for research collaboration and dissemination, helping to realize the advantages that motivated those policies. Existing research data management (RDM) systems and infrastructure, of which research data repositories form an important component, are currently inadequate to support and further this vision. Research data are complex compound objects, and their use, and also the mode of interacting with them, differs considerably from those of manuscript documents (e.g. research publications). This research proposes a holistic framework for RDM system design that expressly takes into account the needs of system users as well as the peculiar requirements of research data, to develop well-functioning systems. It demonstrates the development process of a simple prototype of a user-centered, data-conscious RDM system, called DataFinder, from the earliest stages of requirements gathering to requirements analyses, design, development, and evaluation. Importance is given as much to the final deliverable (i.e. DataFinder) as to the process of attaining it, since a substantial part of the research preceded the former, and the findings garnered along the way will likely prove useful for purposes of which system design forms only one