New Appointment Within the Library: Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian

Trish Finnan has recently joined the Research Services team in the Library as Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian. Her previous roles at NUI Galway include Collection Management Librarian and Subject Librarian, Business and Economics. She has also worked in the libraries at DCU and UL, as well as for the European Commission and in the private sector.

As part of the Research Services team in the Library her remit is focused on supporting researchers in relation to open access publishing on ARAN, NUI Galway’s institutional repository. She will also develop support services related to research data management planning.

Trish is currently reviewing all workflows that relate to depositing material in ARAN, NUI Galway’s institutional repository. The platform for ARAN is currently being upgraded to the latest version. This will improve its functionality and usage data. The goal is to provide a deposit process that simplifies procedures for the researcher, making it easy for them to comply with and benefit from the open access publishing requirements of funders. A training and advocacy programme to explain and support open access publishing will be provided. Related publishing services will include the provision of DOIs.

Increasingly research data management plans and open access to research data is required by funders. The advantages cited include the potential for verification and re-use of research data, continuity of research as staff/researchers change, data sharing and collaboration, research visibility, impact and citation. We already see journal articles that link to datasets in publications like Nature. Other new data journals that are peer reviewed and citable include Scientific Data (Nature) and the Geoscience Data Journal (Wiley). Alongside this data repositories and discovery services like Data Citation Index have developed.

Open access to research data requires planning and management from the start of the research data life cycle. Trish will advise on and develop useful resources to support researchers with the development and implementation of data management plans. Alongside this a platform to support open access to research data will be developed in the Library.

For further information contact Trish at email: trish.finnan@nuigalway.ie or telephone 091 495961