Case Studies of US Research Information Management

This session shares findings from a forthcoming OCLC Research report on Research Information Management Practices in the United States (http://oc.lc/us-rim-project), scheduled for early fall 2021. The report collects evidence from in-depth case studies of RIM practices at five US research universities: Penn State University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, UCLA, and University of Miami. The case studies represent open source, proprietary, and home grown RIM solutions at the five institutions and highlight the proliferation of use cases such as public portals, faculty activity reporting, and strategic reporting.

By synthesizing information from the five case studies, we offer a comprehensive definition of Research Information Management and also document the multiple use cases that proliferate in decentralized US research universities. We will also offer a new RIM System Framework, which describes the required and optional functional and technical elements that comprise the architecture of US RIM systems, regardless of use case. We believe that this framework will help demystify RIM infrastructure and also help practitioners better understand the array of campus stakeholders required for successful RIM implementation.

This research is based upon interviews with 39 participants engaged in RIM activities at the five case study institutions and builds upon the significant body of work on RIM practices already produced by OCLC Research (oc.lc/rim). We believe this research is of considerable utility to the university community, offering a more comprehensive and strategic view of RIM practices, along with recommendations for institutions. We will conclude the presentation by demonstrating the value of the case studies and framework through examples pulled from the report’s case studies.