49 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 296 2018 Seeking Sustainability and Inclusivity with Transparent Practices for Research Data Management Heather Soyka, Assistant Professor, School of Information, Kent State University When thinking about how to encourage research data management education and activity, one option is to do that work in public. By demonstrating and modeling good practices, providing stepping stones and clear pathways from beginner to more advanced, and welcoming experimentation, questions, and contributions, communities can encourage public participation and a culture of growth and shared ownership for participants and future members. As a member of the DataONE Community Engagement and Outreach Working Group, one of the projects that I shepherded was a revision of data education curriculum. The Working Group decided to update and convert older educational modules on research data management from static PowerPoint slides to slides in R Markdown, posted in GitHub, that are now open and customizable by the broader research data management community.1 Some of that work was completed with the intent of sustainability and currency of resources over time, with the reasoning that anyone with a GitHub account could contribute or update at any point. However, by placing this work in an open, shared repository, we also provided a window into what it looks like to do ongoing maintenance to these materials in a public place. Who is contributing or maintaining or adding issues to the repository? That previously invisible work is now transparent anyone can see which member created or worked on the lesson, whether a pull request has …by placing this work in an open, shared repository, we also provided a window into what it looks like to do ongoing maintenance to these materials in a public place.
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