Introduction

Inspired by the 23 Things: Libraries for Research Data resource, developed by the RDA Libraries for Research Data Interest Group, we believe that the 23 Things for Research Data Management tool can act as a shared reference tool for knowledge on data management. Research support staff, such as data stewards, IT support staff, librarians or policy officers, often have different levels of understanding of research data management. However, they need to collaborate closely to offer state-of-the-art support for researchers wishing to do responsible data management.

The tool is an outcome of the RDA/LCRDM ‘23 Things Revisited: Field Guides To Research Data Management’ project, funded by RDA Europe, in which various Dutch RDM stakeholders in the Netherlands joined forces to create 23 Things versions for different audiences, to improve cooperation at the national level, and a common understanding of research data management among diverse practitioners and supporters.

Project

Via joint sprint sessions, the RDA original resource was updated to recent developments, such as the FAIR principles, the GDPR and Open Science. In the second phase of the project, the 23 Things were adapted to different audiences, with help of the national and international communities. For this we gratefully thank and acknowledge all the authors/contributors (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3773663).

These audiences are: researchers & PhD candidates, Bachelor & Master students, data & subject librarians, data stewards, IT support staff & IT specialists, research software engineers, and policy makers.

Although the 23 Things are created by the Dutch community, most of the resources aren’t typical Dutch anyway, as the Dutch community heavily relies on all the useful international resources out there. We believe that our audience specific versions of the 23 Things are thus relevant to the international community.

The project was executed by a community-driven task group, in the context of the National Coordination Point Research Data Management (LCRDM, the Netherlands) and realised by the Centre for Digital Humanities.