COVID-19: A Data Curator’s perspective

“My hope is that, even after the pan­dem­ic has end­ed, researchers remain moti­vat­ed to share their research data…”

Data Cura­tor, Eric Rumon­dor, shares his per­son­al per­spec­tive of review­ing datasets uploaded to 4TU.ResearchData dur­ing the cur­rent pan­dem­ic.

I start­ed work­ing for TU Delft Library in Octo­ber 1985 as a sci­en­tif­ic infor­ma­tion spe­cial­ist. Orig­i­nal­ly, the focus of my work was on the elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, math­e­mat­ics and com­put­er sci­ence col­lec­tion. 

Now, I work as part of the Research Data ser­vices team as one of the data cura­tors. My work involves review­ing datasets that are uploaded to the 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry and sup­port­ing researchers to make their data ‘FAIR’ (Find­able, Acces­si­ble, Inter­op­er­a­ble and Reusable). After all, this is the pur­pose of stor­ing research data — to make it acces­si­ble to oth­ers. A sci­en­tif­ic pub­li­ca­tion in a renowned jour­nal has added val­ue when the under­ly­ing research data is also eas­i­ly acces­si­ble. 

The sub­ject of the data has become very broad; it cov­ers a wider range of the STEM and design dis­ci­plines than when I first start­ed. I also notice how the fac­ul­ties work togeth­er more, and have become more ‘mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary’. This change also requires a dif­fer­ent approach from tech­ni­cal sup­port staff work­ing ‘behind the scenes’ at 4TU.ResearchData.  

Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, our work­load has actu­al­ly increased. It turns out that researchers are more dili­gent in fil­ing their research data dur­ing this time of lock­downs, mean­ing that we are busier. This is a great devel­op­ment!

My hope is that, even after the pan­dem­ic has end­ed, researchers remain moti­vat­ed to share their research data. It’s real­ly worth it because it has an added val­ue to all stages of their research efforts. 

Eric Rumon­dor

Authored by Deirdre Casel­la (Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer at 4TU.ResearchData)
Fea­tured Image by Petanos from Pix­abay