SURVEY OF ERESEARCH PRACTICES AND SKILLS AT QUT, AUSTRALIA Stephanie Bradbury Martin Borchert CRICOS No J

The Authors Stephanie Bradbury Research Support Librarian (QUT Library) Research Training Coordinator (Research Student Centre) Information Manager (Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation) Martin Borchert Associate Director, Library Services (Information Resources and Research Support)

QUT... 40,000 students 1,700 researchers Inner-city Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

eResearch at QUT

Purpose of the Survey Provide a snapshot of researchers’ eResearch practices and skills, that is, act as a skills audit of researchers’ eResearch skills. Provide an indication of researchers’ training needs in the many aspects of eResearch.

Survey Method Key Survey online survey tool was used Questions were developed covering 72 skills Piloted on 6 researchers from DVCs to 1,700 research staff (included some HDR students) Reminder Free coffee voucher

The survey asked respondents to: Rate how they would describe their skill level in a selection of eResearch skills and practices grouped in the following categories: 1.Scholarly communication practices 2.Using collaborative technologies 3.Data management practices 4.Managing different types of data 5.Using different data collection and analysis techniques. 6.Using visualization tools 7.Using computation tools or activities Indicate if they would like training or online resources for each of the skills listed in the categories above. Indicate if they use open source software or tools List any other tools they use to process or analyse research data Indicate any programming languages or scripts they use in their research practices Indicate if they use open source software or tools Indicate how they like to learn new technologies. List the top three eResearch training requirements they (TILS research support staff) would like addressed in Indicate their knowledge of various federal and state agencies that support eResearch initiatives. Add open-ended comments on various topics.

NOT APPLICABLE to my research UNAWARE (I am unaware of this skill / tool and, as such, have not used it in my research) AWARE: No experience (I have heard about this skill / tool, but have not used it) BASIC SKILLS COMPETENT EXPERT

Focus Groups 8 focus groups Participants were targeted based on responses and nominations by directors of research institutes Uptake of eResearch tools and technologies Issues and challenges relating to learning new technologies Issues and challenges relating to conducting eResearch activities Training preferences of eResearch skills and technologies

Results 277 researchers took the survey and 254 completed it The survey population is not strictly random from the statistical perspective, so we can interpret results in terms of general trends only, rather than respondents representing the academic population of QUT 159 free test responses were received to open ended questions

Participants

Scholarly communication Researchers’ self-rated skill levels of 9 scholarly communication skills

Scholarly communication Comparison of skill level ratings between STM and SSH disciplines: Calculating bibliometric indicators that measure your research impact (e.g. h-index)

Scholarly communication Training requests of all respondents in Scholarly Communication skills

Using Collaborative Technologies for Research Researchers’ self-rated skill levels of using 16 collaborative technologies

Using Collaborative Technologies for Research Requests for Training or Online Resources in Collaborative Technologies

Using Collaborative Technologies for Research Specific technologies mentioned included: SendThisFile Joomla (Content management system) MessageNet (to send SMS) Ning (Social networks) (X2) Scribd (document sharing) BaseCamp Doodle (shared calendar) Delicious Facebook (x 4) Blackboard (x 2) Elluminate (x 2) Twitter ALTC Exchange GoToMeeting (web conferencing) Google docs (x 3) Google groups Transana (video data analysis) Mendeley (social citation networks - content repositories) Box (cloud-based content management)

Data Management Practices Researchers’ self-rated skill levels in data management practices

Data Collection and Analysis Techniques and Practices Researchers’ self-rated skill levels in data collection and analysis techniques and practices

Data Collection and Analysis Techniques and Practices Number of requests for training and online resources in data collection and analysis techniques and practices

Managing Research Data Researchers’ self-rated skill levels in managing different types of data

Managing Research Data Number of requests for training and online resources in managing different types of research data

Managing Research Data Have you made your digital research data available to other researchers?

Managing Research Data How did you make your data available to other researchers?

Managing Research Data Have you wanted to share your data with collaborators (outside of QUT) but have experienced difficulties doing so? What were the difficulties experienced in sharing data?

Visualization Tools Researchers’ self-rated skill levels in using visualization tools in their research

Visualization Tools Researchers’ requests for training and online resources in visualization tools

Computation Tools and Activities Researchers’ self-rated skill levels in using computation tools and activities in their research

Computation Tools and Activities Researchers’ requests for training and online resources in computation tools and activities in their research

Writing Computer Programs or Scripts Researchers’ responses to programming languages and scripts they use to support their research activities

eResearch Skills to Increase Research Productivity and Quality Researchers’ responses to the “three eResearch skills to increase their research productivity and quality”

Research Practices in the Future Concept Map of Responses to Question: How do you see your research practices changing over the next five years?

What’s next QUT is using this information to: Identify training needs – support staff Identify training needs - researchers Focus available resources Better inform the development of new services A similar survey was undertaken to Library ITS research support staff Full reports will become available THE END