Browsing by Author "Bituka, Ronald"

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    Exploring Collaborative Partnership in Research Data Management: A study of Selected University Libraries in Kenya
    (Eastern Africa Journal of Contemporary Research, 2024) Njagi, Pauline; Njoroge, Gitau; Bituka, Ronald
    The study focuses on research data management, which involves a wide range of data lifecycle-related responsibilities and activities. It intended to assess the appropriate collaborative partnerships and areas of collaboration to enhance RDM tasks such metadata production, analysis, storage, sharing, and reuse. The study employed descriptive quantitative design to collect data from 35 participants purposefully chosen from Egerton and Kenyatta University. The Cronbach Alpha test was used to assess the questionnaire's reliability. A Cronbach Alpha of 0.78 ascertain the instrument reliability. The collected data was analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences. The study findings were presented using tables for understanding. The findings reveal that collaboration among, librarians, researchers, IT professionals, legal experts, research directorates, and academic units could help in achieving a flowless research data management practice. Also, the collaboration areas were identified including defining of data repository criteria, reusing research data, choosing data repositories, exchanging data across disciplines, and data sharing within and outside discipline. However, in data renting period, participant had low perception. The study recommends further research on each collaboration partners to ascertain the duties and responsibility for flowless adoption of research data management practices. Also, an exploration of what should be included in each collaboration areas could help shed light to academic institution libraries on specific aspects for successful implementing/adoption of RDM practices.
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    Understanding the Legal Framework in Research Data Management: A Study of Selected Academic Libraries in Kenya
    (Regional Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 2024-04) Njagi, Pauline Ruguru; Gitau, Njoroge; Bituka, Ronald
    Rationale of Study – The study focused on the legal framework instrumental in protecting research participants' rights and interests. It also sought to identify potential legal risks and recommend strategies to mitigate them, promote ethical conduct, and enhance security for data reuse and sharing. Methodology – The study used a quantitative research design to gather quantifiable data. The target population was academic librarians and executive library users from Kenyatta and Egerton University. A total of 35 participants participated in the study. Structured open-ended questionnaires were used to obtain responses from participants purposively selected. Findings – The study revealed that academic institutions have policies. However, to maintain a healthy research ecosystem that facilitates accessibility, interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge transmission, and data sharing, academic libraries need to implement research data management policies that match open science standards, such as promoting reuse in the context of adherence to intellectual property rights and security of sensitive data. Implications – The study sheds light on issues and legal concerns addressed or should be addressed by research data management policies adoption or being prepared for adoption in academic libraries. Its issues are intellectual property, protection of data against security breaches, terms and conditions regarding data use, and protection of sensitive data confidentiality. Originality – The paper shed light on research data management policy, precisely the issues which should be included in the policy, as well as legal concerns.