What happens to research data when a member of research group leaves?

From a research data management perspective, many members of staff leave in a rather uncoordinated way: the person leaving hands over a hard drive with more or less (but most of the time: less) organized and documented data in their last few days of work.

If you were to ask us what we consider to be one of the biggest causes of RDM problems, we would say: staff members leaving without a systematic data transfer! 

Yet it is not that difficult to prevent this phenomenon. For this purpose, the industry has developed the process of expert debriefing: formalized and documented exit interviews with members of staff in the last few months of their employment contract. The goal is to retain knowledge within the company.

In terms of data, this knowledge transfer includes, for example, the following questions:

• How did you record their data?
• What else would you like to have done with their data?
• For what purpose must their data not be used for under any circumstances?
• ...

With expert debriefings, the Service Center Research Data supports the systematic offboarding of its staff.

You are very welcome to get in touch with us. Feel free to contact us by e-mail via Service Center Research Data or book an appointment appointment.