Research data practices of aerospace engineering faculty: A qualitative study

Abstract

The storage, curation, and accessibility of digital research data is becoming more important for scientific and engineering researchers at academic institutions. While much has been written on the needs of research data management of scientists in the academic literature, less common are studies that look in finer detail at specific engineering disciplines. In this paper, the authors use qualitative data from interviews with research faculty of a specific engineering discipline, aerospace engineering (AE), to identify common perceptions, practices, and strategies with respect to their research data. This report also discusses how these faculty react to, adapt to, and accommodate those challenges, often in the words of the respective researchers themselves. This report then concludes with possible recommendations for academic libraries, and research university campuses with an AE presence.