It takes a village: strengthening data management through collaboration with diverse institutional offices

Successful data management involves actions throughout the entire research lifecycle, but often providers of data management services directly interact with researchers only at isolated points in their study. This is a challenge for service providers when trying to help researchers integrate best practices into their workflow, as much of this work takes place in their own offices, labs, or with the help of other specialized support services on campus. Therefore, an important part of promoting data management on campus is to make specialized institutional support offices aware of the impact their services can have on the management of research data. This paper will describe efforts at a large, decentralized, mid-western American university to promote data management practices and awareness by reaching out to offices across campus, including those involved in grants consulting, human subjects protection, data security, survey services, statistical consulting, and technology commercialization. From the perspective of a unit specializing in direct research support, we will also discuss specific ways in which our office is integrating data management into our services. We suggest similar offices at other universities may be overlooked but important allies of libraries in promoting data management practices