RDM Demerit Badges

We present the RDM Demerit Badges as a tool to facilitate the establishment of an open no-blame culture [1] through small everyday interactions among colleagues beyond institutional-ised educational settings. The RDM Demerit Badges are a set of open educational materials that can be integrated into data literacy and RDM education. The set consists of stickers and accompanying material. Research data management (RDM) is a complex activity that is deeply intertwined with other activities in a research project. Given the innovative and ever-changing nature of research projects, requirements and practices are constantly changing. The complex and often time-restrained nature of most research endeavours means that mistakes and errors are bound to happen. Good data literacy and RDM education can raise the awareness of best practices and will reduce the number of mistakes, but the ever-developing nature of research activities also means that new types of mistakes are bound to develop.[2] An open no-blame approach to mistakes is a good and realistic approach to improving individual and organisational levels of mistakes, and particularly the quicker adoption of better practices.[3] The origin and design model of our materials are the badges of Anglo-Saxon boy/girl scouts, which are awarded for proven experience and acquired skills. Semiotically shortened, the image content of these badges refers to the achievement (merit). It is recognisable as such when the badge is worn by scouts as a patch on their uniform. In the context of the maker community, the YouTube channel "Tested" uses these merit badges as a conceptual and visual template for its demerit badges. The patches distributed by the channel are intended to promote an open approach to mistakes in the DIY and maker community. For the implementa-tion of our RDM demerit badges, we closely follow these models in terms of design but have opted for the medium of the sticker, which can be visibly placed on personal items in the (digi-tal) office work context. We emphasise a no-blame point of view in the workshops and courses we are teaching but have always looked for means to facilitate the spread of a no-blame culture from within these sessions into the communities and organisations of the participants. The RDM Demerit Badges are one way to reach out from the classroom settings. The badges are designed to spark small everyday interactions among colleagues and thus act as a nu-cleus around which small and open conversations about data literacy, mistakes and learning from mistakes can crystallise. All materials are released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) and we provide all materials that are required to simply reprint the stickers as well as all mate-rial required to modify and extend the Demerit Badges via Zenodo.