Identifying design requirements of a user-centered research data management system

Abstract

Research data repositories perform many useful functions, the key ones being the storage of research datasets, and making the same discoverable for potential reuse. Over the years, various criteria for assessing the user-centeredness of information systems have been developed and standards have gradually been improved. However, there has been less development in case of research data management (RDM) systems. By means of a combination of user-focused research methods viz. questionnaire surveys, face-to-face interviews, a systematic appraisal of existing services and a technical experiment, we have sought to understand the meaning of user-centeredness pertaining to research data repositories, and identify some key indicators of it. We have furthermore translated our findings into design requirements based on which we propose to develop and test a prototype of a user-centered RDM system. This paper reports on how we identified the design requirements that would make the RDM systems more user-centered.