Research Purpose for Participants

Research Goals & Background Information

This research will answer the following questions:

  • What are the different service and cost models institutions implement to support research data management and sharing policies?
  • What is the direct expense to the institution, and specifically the academic library, to implement federally mandated data-sharing policies?
  • What is the cost to the researcher to comply with the funded research data-sharing policies?

The initiative was originally led by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in partnership with the Data Curation Network (DCN). Early phases were supported by a 2021 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) EAGER Grant (NSF #2135874) and a 2023 U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant (LG-254930-OLS-23). The initiative is currently based at Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries & University Museums and is funded by the research sites through 2026.

Research Streams

To examine these questions, we are employing three research streams, which are occurring  from 2024–2026. Each of these streams is detailed below. If you are a research participant, please select your research stream below for more information.

Research Stream #1: Following NIH Researchers Prospectively

Recognizing that research data sharing activities occur throughout the research lifecycle, from post-award to project closeout, from approximately 2024 to 2026, we will meet with NIH-funded researchers quarterly to understand their activities and expenses related to making their data publicly available.

Research Stream #1: NIH Researchers Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

The following are the criteria required to participate in this research stream:

  • Be at least 21 years old
  • Have a project/award and name listed in the NIH award database
  • Be funded by the NIH after January 25, 2023, the date the new NIH Data Management and Sharing policy came into effect
  • Have an award type with data sharing requirements, as outlined in the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing policy
  • Have a funded award with a duration of approximately two years, so that data sharing practices and expenses can be captured throughout the award/project life cycle
  • The principal investigator (PI) must be currently employed at one of the participating RADS institutions and have a valid institutional email address

* Awards pulled from the NIH award database will be manually assessed to determine which projects best align with the RADS award period.

Research Stream #1: NIH Researchers Survey Instruments

 NIH Prospective Researcher Intake Survey

 NIH Prospective Researcher Recurring Survey

Research Stream #2: Surveying Funded Researchers Retrospectively

In 2025, all 12 research sites are conducting a retrospective survey of funded researchers to gather insights into their data sharing activities and related expenses over the course of a funded research project.

Research Stream #2: Researcher Survey Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

The subject population, composed of researchers/Principal Investigators, have been identified by extracting award information from federal funder databases. This include recipients of awards, which ended from 2018 to 2024, who are based at the participating RADS research site institutions. The following funders are included in the study: the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Research Survey Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria:

  • Be at least 21 years old
  • Have a project/award and name listed in the DOD award database, the DOE award database, the NASA award database, the NEH award database, the NIH award database, the NSF award database, or the USDA award database
  • The award must have ended between 2018 and 2024
  • The award type must typically have research data that would require sharing for public access (e.g., teaching grants that do not produce data requiring sharing are excluded)
  • Participant did not respond/participate in the 2022 RADS Phase I survey to funded researchers
  • The principal investigator (PI) must be currently employed at one of the participating RADS institutions and have a valid institutional email address
Research Stream #2: Researcher Survey Instrument

RADS Phase Two Retrospective Researcher Survey

Research Stream #3: Surveying Administrators Retrospectively

This research investigates how academic institutions support public access to research data by interviewing administrators about their units’ data management activities and associated costs. Expanding on prior work that examined the costs of staffing, infrastructure, and services, this study focuses on fiscal year 2023/2024. Structured, guided interviews will be conducted with approximately 100 administrators across the 12 RADS research sites.

Research Stream #3: Administrator Interviews Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

The participant pool includes approximately 10 institutional administrators at each institution who oversee departments supporting activities, services, or infrastructure necessary for public access to research data. Participants may represent offices or departments such as Sponsored Projects, Information Security, Research Administration, Medical School Research, Campus IT, Libraries, Research Computing, or Research Compliance.

Recruitment involves personalized email invitations sent directly to administrators’ institutional work emails, which are publicly available or accessible to all institution employees. The initial email will introduce the project, outline its purpose, and invite participation in the survey.

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Must have knowledge of or access to expense data related to data-sharing activities, services, support, or infrastructure within their unit.
  • Must be at least 21 years old.
  • Must be currently employed at the institution with a valid institutional email address.
Research Stream #3: Administrator Guided Interview Instrument

RADS Phase Two Retrospective Administrator Guided Interview Instrument

Plans to Make Results Available

Research data from this project will be de-identified, aggregated, and shared in either the open access data repository at WashU or Johns Hopkins University.

Results from this study have been, and will continue to be, broadly disseminated through conference presentations and materials, scholarly articles, organizational blog posts, and as part of publicly available reports published in Johns Hopkins institutional repositories. A list of up-to-date research outputs is listed on the RADS ‘Publications & Presentations‘ page. 

All assets resulting from this award are or will be licensed as Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) to allow for the broad sharing and adaptation of the materials.

Institutional Review Board

IRB determinations finalized across all study locations.

The project was granted exempt or acknowledged status, or deemed not human participants research, by each institutional IRB on the following dates:

  • Duke University: Deemed not human subjects research 10/03/2025
  • New York University: IRB-FY2025-9593 approved 02/04/2025
  • Johns Hopkins University: Study No. HIRB00022296 acknowledged 10/15/2025
  • University of Arizona: IRB ID-STUDY00005593 approved 01/24/2025; modification approved 10/09/2025
  • University at Buffalo: IRB ID-STUDY00008203 approved 03/12/2024; modification approved 10/16/2025
  • University of Hawai’i at Mānoa: IRB Protocol No.: 2024-00881 approved 01/30/2025; modification approved 10/06/2025
  • University of Kentucky: IRB No. 100563 approved 12/09/2024; modification approved 10/22/2025
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln: IRB No. 20241224296EX approved 12/02/2024; modification approved 07/02/2025
  • University of Nevada, Las Vegas: IRB Protocol No.: UNLV-2024-496 approved 01/31/2025; modification approved 10/01/2025
  • University of Minnesota: IRB ID-STUDY00026485 approved 10/02/2025
  • University of South Carolina: IRB-Pro00141374, approved 11/22/2024; modification approved 01/17/2025
  • WashU: IRB ID-202206111 approved 05/01/2024

Contact Information

Research Team Contacts
  • Jake Carlson, Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections, and Outreach, University at Buffalo, jakcarl@buffalo.edu
  • Leslie Delserone, Research Data Services and Science Librarian, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, ldelserone2@unl.edu
  • Joel Herndon, Director, Center for Data and Visualization Sciences, Duke University, joel.herndon@duke.edu
  • Amanda Koziura, Head, Scholarly Communication and Data Services, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, amanda.koziura@unlv.edu
  • Alicia Hofelich Mohr, Research Data and Support Services Lead, College of Liberal Arts LATIS, University of Minnesota, hofelich@umn.edu 
  • Jennifer Moore, Head of Data Services, Washington University in St. Louis, j.moore@wustl.edu 
  • Hejin Shin, Data Services Librarian, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, hejins@hawaii.edu
  • Isaac Wink, Research Data Librarian, University of Kentucky, isaac.wink@uky.edu
  • Nicholas Wolf, Head of Data Services and Research Data Librarian, New York University, nmw2@nyu.edu