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Do we need some kind of national observatory for consultation projects ?

Hoffman, Andrew

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17801320
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

These slides are from a presentation given on 2025-12-03, part of the Open Science Community Leiden's OSCoffee series. Archived event page: https://web.archive.org/web/20251203111844/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2025/12/oscoffee-251203 *** Abstract Do we need some kind of national observatory for consultation projects? There is currently a great deal of interest in the Netherlands in conducting consultations focused on research data/software management, FAIR data, open science, and related themes. Some of these are institution-specific, others domain-specific, and still others more nationally scoped and domain-agnostic. These initiatives -- many of which are funded by NWO (via OSNL and the TDCCs), but that also include grassroots projects and even individuals who are doing this work -- are asking a fairly delimited set of questions, and are targeting an equally delimited set of stakeholders. Along with the benefits that accompany our enthusiasm for carrying out the consultative work required to develop better policies, practices, and infrastructures to support more open/FAIR/responsible research in the Netherlands, however, comes certain risks: doing duplicative work and over-researching certain populations are but two examples. Without greater visibility of the many projects happening in this space, we also risk limiting the reuse of the methodological approaches, documentation, and data that such projects generate. Drawing from our recent experiences running the TDCC-SSH/NWO-funded SLIPPRS-NL project, we’d like to use this OSCL session to have a conversation with the Leiden community about these risks and challenges and to collectively brainstorm ways to address them. Do we need some kind of national observatory for consultation projects? If so, what would such a thing look like, and who should be responsible for shepherding it? We look forward to hearing about your own experiences and your ideas for how to move forward!

Full text

Do we need some kind of national observatory for consultation projects ? OSCL OSCoffee 3 December 2025 Andrew S. Hoffman Service Scientist - Research Data Management FSW // CADS & CWTS Leiden University - Despite the very real consequences of the recent cuts to science and education in the Netherlands, we've been in a relatively privileged position to have funding lines dedicated to helping advance open science, FAIR data, research data & software management, scholarly communication, and research integrity. - This has translated into the development of new practices, policies, and infrastructure, and an attendant interest in understanding, monitoring, and evaluating their impact -- all of which is informed by many (ongoing) national meetings, consultations, surveys, and related initiatives. - …But are we making the most out of our investments in these latter efforts? And is there room for improving the visibility and reusability of the methods, data, and outputs which they are generating ? Setting the stage A case to think with … (1) To carry out a national consultation combining policy analysis, survey methods, and focus groups, to better understand the diverse data practices and broader thinking about responsible research/research integrity found within FSBSs (2) To use this improved understanding as an evidentiary basis for developing national-level policy advice on FAIR-aligned research data management and research integrity in FSBSs. In the most immediate case, this evidence aims to inform an update to the Guideline for the archiving of academic research for Faculties of Behavioural and Social Sciences in the Netherlands , the most recent version of which was published in March 2022. SLIPPRS-NL Project objectives National survey on data practices, targeting researchers at FSBSs in NL (WP3) - Led by René Bekkers, Sociology, VU Amsterdam - Fill out the survey here ! → https://edu.nl/cq9ca Empirical components Co-creation/dialogue sessions at each of the 12 universities with a FSBS (WP4) - Led by Francesca Morselli & Kris Kok, Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam - Please let us know if you’d like to participate, or have a colleague who would ! - We may be doing duplicative work in developing methods and approaches from scratch that might instead make use of previous/ongoing investments of our colleagues. - We may be 'over-researching’ certain populations, meaning that successive requests to fill out multiple surveys and participate in multiple focus groups about RDSM/OS/etc. will eventually lead to fatigue in response rates (especially knowing that these themes do not always spark the same enthusiasm in our respondents as they do for us !) - We may be getting skewed results, as those who do agree to participate may already share a similar worldview (e.g., ‘pro’-open science, etc.) - The data and outputs from these consultations may not be meaningfully visible. Assuming they are being openly shared in the first place, some might end up at DANS Data Stations, others on Dataverse, others on OSF/Zenodo, etc. but it requires searching across multiple platforms in order to see what the current Dutch landscape of consultation outputs looks like. Challenges So… - Do these thoughts and challenges resonate with y’all ? - Do you think there’s a need for some kind of national observatory for these types of consultation projects ? - And if so, what should it look like / what considerations should we account for ? - Is this a fundable project / a project that requires funding ? - Do we build something from scratch, or reuse existing tools ? (e.g., Zotero) - Who would be responsible for hosting it ? - Links with OSCNL Open Consultation Panel ? - Who would be responsible for its curation ? - Should we also be standardizing questions ? (e.g., using controlled vocabularies) - . . . ?