Graham Pryor is Information Management Consultant with the Amor Group, following six years as Associate Director with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), where he designed and managed the e-Science liaison and institutional engagement programmes. Until his departure from the DCC in mid-2013 he also developed the highly inclusive Research Data Management Forum, a medium for the bi-annual exchange of knowledge and experience in the more urgent topics surfacing from the broader data community. Prior to the DCC he spent nine years as Director of Information Systems and Services at the University of Aberdeen, which followed a number of senior information management posts within the UK’s defence and energy sectors. Sarah Jones is a Senior Information Support Officer with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), a UK national service providing support to the higher education sector in all aspects of research data management. Since 2011 her principal focus has been on the DCC's institutional engagement programme, in which she has been leading the provision of support to a range of universities, helping them to scope researchers' requirements, delivering training, advising on the customisation of the DMPonline tool and assisting the implementation of research data management services. She also develops guidance materials for the DCC, specifically on research data policy and data management planning, and has been involved in a number of projects from the Jisc Managing Research Data programme. Angus Whyte is a Senior Institutional Support Officer in the Digital Curation Centre (DCC). He works alongside partners in UK universities to improve services that support researchers and other stakeholders in data management, and has authored guidelines and articles on a range of data issues. Angus has a PhD in Social Informatics from the University of Strathclyde and before joining the DCC was for 10 years a postdoc researcher, working on requirements discovery and the evaluation of information systems to support engagement in policy-making.
This is a book which resonated strongly with me. It advocates for a culture change in data practices; a sustainable, holistic approach to research data management, from policies to planning, to storing and sharing as appropriate, and cautions against being driven by compliance with single funder requirements. Yet it also addresses the importance of sharing data for research impact, integrity and economics. It is neatly split into two: the different approaches and elements of service provision, and case studies. The editors write the bulk of the text; the first five chapters provide an introduction and overview of elements of research data management services, challenges and issues associated with a philosophical shift to the sharing of data from traditionally private storage, to data communication and requirements for data infrastructure. The current gap between researcher requirements and currently available services is also noted, justifying this book as a guide to developing services. -- Australian Academic and Research Libraries I have to admit from the outset that when I was invited to review Delivering Research Data Management Services: Fundamentals of good practice by Pryor, Jones, and White, I was concerned that I may not be able to write a useful review for librarians looking for a source that would help them in the implementation of research data management (RDM) services. My concerns, however, were allayed after reading the first chapter of the book. I realized that this book was one that librarians can learn from, use, and adapt...the book is presented in a straightforward and scholarly manner without the overuse of jargon. -- Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship I feel the book is particularly relevant to professional support service staff who now find RDM is part of their remit. Viewed as a whole book, it is a comprehensive guide to the drivers of change, the components of building and executing a policy and implementing an RDM infrastructure, but will also act as a reference text, to look up specific areas of guidance and examples or be signposted toward resources. -- Records Management Journal