The Archivist and the Management of Open Research Datasets in Canadian Universities: Increasing Visibility and Developing Collaborations

In an academic world advocating for open science values, researchers should deposit their research datasets in a form that is open and reusable by users. Provided that these data are reusable, it is important that they meet some criteria defined according to the FAIR (Findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) principles. To this end, a number of experts, namely academic librarians, help researchers manage their research datasets. From an archival point of view, the latter are viewed as evidence of scientific activities. Despite having necessary expertise to manage these data, archivists are not always present in this context and if they are, their role is limited to the long-term preservation of these data. In this article, open research data management is studied from an archival perspective, conceptualizing the role of university archivists in the governance of these traces. By mobilizing relevant scientific articles in information science, we model the relationships archivists should develop with other stakeholders involved in open research data governance in Canadian universities. Our research contributes to advancing knowledge about the role of university archivists in collaborative research data governance. Keywords: open research data governance; archivists; librarians; open science; scientific transparency; universities; Canada