Data curation needs of researchers at Mzuzu University

Abstract

The study examined data curation needed by researchers at Mzuzu University fifty (50) self-administered questionnaires were distributed to purposefully selected academic staffs representing 28% of the total population. 57% of the respondents were not familiar with the term "data curation" however, it was revealed that they actually practiced the aspects associated with data curation. Mixed views were generated from the researchers with 34% not willing to share their data for fear that others may reuse it for other purposes contrary to the original idea. 14% of the respondents indicated that they destroyed their data after conducting research which is contrary to the whole idea of data curation. However, 80% of the respondents agreed that data would be useful for future research. The study revealed unique issues to do with the management of data, data sharing and reuse and challenges, For the fact that data curation is a new concept with a lot of concerns worldwide, there is need for more research in the field to iron out gray areas on the processes of the concept. Researchers should be endowed with knowledge about the benefits of data curation such as data preservation, data archiving, data reuse which prevents duplication