“I love numbers!”
From the time she first discovered Research Data Management as a new and developing field, Xuan Zhou realized that this occupation was the right fit for her. Thus began the journey that led her to Texas State University as the first Research Data Curation Specialist for University Libraries (UL) where she provides key services to faculty and campus researchers.
“I provide research data management consultation services for Texas State researchers to help them learn the skills needed to manage their research data and provide guidance and instruction for how to preserve, share, and deposit data in the Texas State University Dataverse repository,” said Zhou. “I can help our researchers navigate the whole research data lifecycle.”
The components of that research data lifecycle include:
- Data Management Plan
- Data Collection
- Data Organization
- Data Analysis & Visualization
- Data Sharing & Preservation
“We want our researchers to know about the resources available to them and to utilize our Texas State University Dataverse for their data management,” Zhou said. “Another thing I offer to researchers, especially those Principal Investigators (PIs) is help reviewing and developing their Data Management Plan (DMP) for grant applications.”
Increasingly, research funders require submission of DMPs for the data associated with academic research. Often, they have specific expectations for how these plans are presented and what language is used.
“I can review their management plan draft, guide them about how to use the standardized language, and make them aware of the DMPTool that they can use to develop their plan.”
Zhou joined the UL’s research data services team in December 2022. As she proudly explains her services, it’s clear she has found her true calling which bridges diverse educational achievements.
A native of China, Zhou moved to the U.S. with her family and found her way to College Station, Texas where she earned her master’s in curriculum and instruction and a PhD. in educational psychology from Texas A&M University.
“Throughout that journey, I learned quantitative research methods and became very interested in that because all my research involved quantitative data and I discovered I like statistics,” she said.
When an opportunity to serve as a graduate research assistant for Research Data Management department at Texas A&M’s University Libraries was presented to her, Zhou jumped at the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a newly developing field. There, Zhou started to provide training workshops covering a variety of topics in RDM and DMP consulting services for the university community.
Additionally, Zhou is actively involved in writing academic research papers and presenting her research at national and local conferences (e.g., American Library Association, Association of College & Research Libraries, Texas Conference on Digital Libraries) in the RDM field. She has been published in several prestigious journals over the past two years with topics including: a set of empirical studies related to RDM intervention; an RDM needs assessment; social science students’ data core competency; and a scoping review of RDM best practices in higher education institutions.
Later, Zhou’s family moved to the Austin-San Marcos area, as luck would have it, Texas State’s UL created a position very similar to what Zhou was doing at A&M and she was a perfect fit for the new team.
Now, Zhou is leveraging her education and passions to fulfill Texas State researchers’ data management needs. She has created asynchronous RDM CANVAS modules for TXST researchers and graduate students to learn basic data management skills and become familiar with tools to help facilitate research. Zhou also plans to provide a workshop series regarding RDM during 2023-2024 school year.
But Texas State researchers don’t have to wait for those workshops to seek help from Zhou.
“All they have to do is send me an email,” Zhou said. “I can help them navigate the data research maze.”
More information about the library’s research data services is available on their web page.
This article was contributed by Debbie Pitts, University Libraries Marketing and Communications Coordinator