12-14 November 2024, Costa Rica and Online

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting (RDA P23) | Sustainable Science

Creating Personas - Introducing the Data Steward Career Tracks WG

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Welcome new RDA members!

6 Guiding Principles are at the heart of the RDA community

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Liise Lehtsalu, RDA Europe

Elizabeth Newbold, STFC (UK)

Yan Wang, TU Delft (The Netherlands)

Francesca Frontini, ILC-CNR (Italy) /CLARIN

Tereza Kalová, University of Vienna (Austria)

​

​

Liz Stokes, ARDC (Australia)

​

​

Who we are?

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Agenda

​

1. Welcome
2. Introduction to the planned Data Steward Career Tracks WG
3. Lightning Talks
• Shannon Sheridan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA)
• Mijke Jetten, Health RI (The Netherlands
• Liz Stokes, ARDC (Australia)
4. Discussion with the Community: What makes for a useful data steward persona?
5. Next steps

​

Collaborative notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tahoqb-s4Yk1_SPZM7vEgl6pGByG6VHr/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Do data stewards have a career track?

Newbold, E., Wang, Y., Lehtsalu, L., Zhou, B., & McCutcheon, V. (2024). RDA Professionalising Data Stewardship IG - What does a career track for data stewards look like?. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA00102

​

Lehtsalu, L., McCutcheon, V., Newbold, E., Wang, Y., & Zhou, B. (2023). Research Data Alliance Interest Group Professionalising Data Stewardship Career Tracks Survey Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10117910

In a survey conducted by the RDA Professionalising Data Stewardship IG in 2022, we asked people filling data steward roles where they see themselves in 5 years:

“I feel there is nowhere to go from here”

“Burnt out! Hopefully, more informed with RDM. It is such a vast and growth area with so many specialisms that it is difficult to be the sole RDM person at an academic institution with sufficient knowledge for how RDM practices vary among various disciplines and subjects.”

“At a different, larger institution, in a more senior and broader role, with a small team (1 or 2 people) who are the practical data stewards/ ethics specialists.”

“I don’t have any career perspective in my organization. The job of data curation or data management is not evaluated as a research activity.”

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Introduction to the RDA Data Steward Career Tracks WG

Rationale

• currently focus has been on defining data steward roles as well as skills, knowledge and training
• limited attention until now to define sustainable, long-term data steward career paths
• lack of well-defined career paths hinders recruitment and retention of talent

Objective

​

The RDA Data Steward Career Tracks WG proposes to approach data steward career tracks systematically by developing a methodology for data steward persona definition and creating a sample of data steward personas (c. 10-12 personas) as well as career pathways for the sample personas.

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Planned outputs of the RDA Career Tracks WG

Planned deliverables:

1. Methodology for developing data steward personas
2. Sample set of data steward personas
3. Career pathways for sample personas

Mijke Jetten, Marjan Grootveld, Annemie Mordant, Mascha Jansen, Margreet Bloemers, Margriet Miedema, & Celia W.G. van Gelder. (2021). Professionalising data stewardship in the Netherlands. Competences, training and education. Dutch roadmap towards national implementation of FAIR data stewardship (1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4623713, Annex 12.

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

LIGHTNING TALKS

​

Data Steward Career Paths

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

1. Are you in a data steward role in your current organization?
2. What is your current job title?
3. Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years time?

menti.com

8893 8093

Input from session participants

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Lightning Talk Template

1. Introduce yourself (name, job title)
2. Which kind of an organization do you currently work in? (e.g. research performing organization, research infrastructure, research funder, etc.)
3. Where is data stewardship service located in your organization? (e.g. library, research office, IT services, stand-alone unit, etc.)
4. Where are you in your data steward career (career stage)?
5. How did you become engaged with data stewardship?
6. How did you enter your current role? What knowledge and skills were necessary to enter your current role?
7. In your organization, is there a career path for your current role? Please briefly describe this career path.

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Shannon Sheridan: Research Data Librarian

at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA)

• National Laboratory (research performing organization)
• ~6,000 employees
• ~3,000 researchers
• Dispersed, ad hoc data stewardship services
• Research Computing
• Research Information Services
• Advance Team

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Becoming a data steward

• End of early career
• Degree awarded in 2017
• Data career launched from medical librarianship
• Hospital library internship
• Intersection of medical and data librarianship
• Moving to PNNL
• Education
• Consultation

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Career Path

• Hypothetically, next level is team lead
• Team is “Research Information Service”
• Requires an opening in this position
• Shift in responsibilities–not just data management work

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Mijke Jetten: FAIR data lead at Health-RI (Netherlands)

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Mijke Jetten: FAIR data lead at Health-RI (Netherlands)

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Mijke Jetten: FAIR data lead at Health-RI (Netherlands)

How did I become engaged with data stewardship?

​

Research background

• Empirical research skills
• Open to change (open data, RDM practices)
• Data oriented researcher vs research oriented data steward

​

People/community person

• Combination of do-er and connector
• Personality: yellow (Insights Discovery®) �→ extroverted; radiant; friendly; positive; human relations; persuasive; democratic; social

Career path?

​

Organisational perspective

• Young service providing organisation with almost no hierarchical structure
• Fluidity: from technical to metadata specialist, and from policy to community manager

​

Personal perspective

• Next step would be even more managerial, but less content so less attractive
• What does that bring for the next 20-ish years? Move between domains/organisations or maybe towards a more expert knowledge to keep it attractive?

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

​

​

​

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Lightning Talk Template - Invitation for Session Participants’ Profiles

1. Introduce yourself (name, job title)
2. Which kind of an organization do you currently work in? (e.g. research performing organization, research infrastructure, research funder, etc.)
3. Where is data stewardship service located in your organization? (e.g. library, research office, IT services, stand-alone unit, etc.)
4. Where are you in your data steward career (career stage)?
5. How did you become engaged with data stewardship?
6. How did you enter your current role? What knowledge and skills were necessary to enter your current role?
7. In your organization, is there a career path for your current role? Please briefly describe this career path.

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Discussion with the Community: Persona Methodology

• Persona’s are fictional representation portraying “typical” roles and career tracks not defining what a career track should be.
• Initial set of criteria to include in profile: type of organisation, where role is located in the organisation, career stage, entry route, career path.
• In developing the persona templates/methodology want to consider what would be most useful.

​

Open Questions:

• What career stages should we focus on and how to define them?
• Are there different regional/geographical differences that need to be considered?
• What timescale should we consider for career pathways?
• What else should we think about?

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

Data Steward Career Tracks WG Work Plan

M1-M8: Desk research & initial methodology development

• M1-M4: Landscape Analysis (1) Study on existing persona development methodologies (2) study of existing work on data steward career tracks, the scope of the study is global; and (3) Collecting job profiles of data stewards and use cases of data stewardship organisational models.
• M5-8: Define a methodological approach for Data Stewards persona development and create an initial set of data steward personas and linked career paths to be used in the co-creation workshops; planning of co-creation workshops

M9-12: Co-creation

• M9-M12: Virtual and in-person (e.g. at a RDA Plenary) co-creation workshops to test the methodology for data steward persona creation and the initial set of data steward personas and linked career paths.

M13-18: Deliverable drafting

• M13-M15: Refining methodology and the initial set of data steward personas and linked career paths based on co-creation workshops; drafting documentation for data steward persona methodology
• M16: Co-creation workshops’ participant validation of the methodology and sample set of data steward personas and
• M17-18: Finalisation of the methodology, the sample set of data steward personas and the linked career development pathways of each persona

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org

THANK� YOU

RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting

www.rd-alliance.org