Are RDMPs on life-support? The need for a health check for researchers data practices.

The successful promotion of Research Data Management Plans (RDMPs) by most research institutions has elevated them to an integral part of research. However, they often are drafted, approved, filed, but then quickly forgotten. Follow ups and updates seldom occur, let alone substantial review or audits conducted. RDMPs in practice, are often not the living document we intend. At the University of Sydney, the Research Data Consulting (RDC) team are offering RDMP health checks to review a researcher s RDMP, research processes, and ethics compliance. These no-fault reviews provide the researchers with insights into their RDM practices, and solutions to address shortcomings. They are a litmus test for institutional RDM maturity. Initial sessions have been conducted with researchers known to the RDC team, as both a development and refinement of the process, and provide an opportunity to gauge the state of RDM processes with an engaged audience. Moving forward researchers will have the option to book a health check and targeted sessions will continue. Even within an engaged audience, initial findings reveal that RDM practices vary greatly. Some researchers only required minor RDMP updates, others have identified major changes to their research documented through ethics amendments, but not in their RDMP, and sometimes RDMPs exist outside of the institutional RDMP platform. These sessions gauge RDM maturity and raise awareness that RDMPs are living documents. They highlight key areas to target uplift, and provide tangible training, support and feedback to researchers who do or need to engage better with RDM.