Fostering the Next Generation of Open Scientists: Insights from a Project on Encouraging Data Reuse in Students' Theses
Creators: name: Daudrich, Anna
name: Šimukovič, Elena
name: Rekum, Simon van
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Education and training: What knowledge and skills are needed?
Education and training: How effective is current training in delivering knowledge and skills?
Education and training: What are established best practices in educating and training these groups?
Education and training: What innovations are being explored?
Education and training: What skills do curators, researchers and support staff need now, and what will they need in the future?
Lightning Talks
Research Data Management
Data Reuse
RDM Training for Students

description: One of the primary objectives of data curation and Open Science is to ensure the reusability of research data. Currently, data reuse is predominantly centred on advanced academic research. We propose that, in order to establish data reuse as a common practice, it is crucial to begin teaching data literacy as early as possible in academic life, starting at the bachelor's level. This approach can ensure that the necessary practical skills and awareness are developed early on and are firmly anchored for the rest of young researchers’ careers.

In view of this, we launched the ROADS project (Reusing Openly Available Data for Student theses) in December 2023 at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, which will run until June 2025. Our objective is for students from ZHAW at various levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD) across disciplines (ranging from media linguistics to photovoltaics) to reuse existing datasets in different use cases for their theses, term papers, and other assignments. The process of data reuse occurs under the supervision of researchers and lecturers from various ZHAW departments. Additionally, it is facilitated by the data stewards from the university library and a central service unit ZHAW Services Research Data.

With this project, our aim has been to expand the scope of data reuse to include not only research but also educational purposes, helping students (and, partially, their supervisors) to acquire the necessary competencies in Research Data Management. This will enable them to understand how to reuse data and encourage their engagement in such practices. Our initial findings suggest that limited data literacy is indeed one of the major hurdles to data reuse. Without sufficient competencies in searching for datasets, using specific software, or understanding what data quality means in each case, data cannot be effectively reused. In other words, datasets can remain unusable even if all necessary digital curation measures have been taken.

In this contribution, we will particularly focus on the educational strategies relied upon within the ROADS project, considering the perspectives of both students and their supervisors. Specifically, we will address the following questions: Which skills do all participants need to reuse data effectively? Where are the major gaps? What strategies have been implemented to overcome these gaps? What are the main challenges regarding the integration of best practices in Research Data Management into academic curricula? By sharing our findings, we hope to contribute to making data reuse and Research Data Management an integral part of the academic process, and to help sustainably foster a new generation of open scientists.