"How Do I Do That?" A Literature Review of Research Data Management Skill Gaps of Canadian Health Sciences Information Professionals

Background: Research data management (RDM) services are becoming more commonplace in health sciences libraries. A review of the literature reveals numerous strategies to provide training for health sciences librarians as they provide these new services to health sciences researchers, faculty, and students. With the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy currently circulating for consultation, it is imperative for Canadian health sciences information professionals to offer RDM services in their libraries. Methods: A review of relevant scholarly articles were collected and analyzed. Initial searches were conducted in the University of Manitoba Libraries' discovery service, as well as in MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Articles were analyzed for skills necessary to provide RDM services and proposed training initiatives to fill RDM skill gaps. Results: After initial searches, 2 142 articles were identified for review. After removing duplicates and articles with only titles and abstracts, 38 articles were selected by analyzing citation counts in Web of Science and Scopus, as well as analyzing selected reference lists. Conclusion: Several suggestions for training are highlighted from the identified articles, including building a national support network, changes to post-secondary library and information studies' curricula, and offering professional development workshops. However, no consensus emerges with respect to RDM training initiatives. As training initiatives are developed and documented, future studies will verify which initiatives have the greatest success for upskilling information professionals in managing research data in Canadian health sciences libraries.