Stacie Powell
Data Services Librarian
Clemson University
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6965-8561
Stacy Winchester
Research Data Librarian
University of South Carolina
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1305-7255
Introduction: A Changing Federal Data Policy Landscape
When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) updated its Data Management and Sharing (DMSP) policy in 2023, expectations for research transparency and open data were elevated across the academic research landscape. In turn, faculty now face increasing pressure to both understand and comply with these changing federal funding requirements, and many universities are relying on data librarians to help researchers navigate the policy (Pellen et al., 2025). However, communicating the value and expertise that data librarians can offer in supporting NIH-funded data can be challenging. As two data librarians from Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, we recognized a common need for training and saw an opportunity to address these challenges together.
Identifying a Regional Need for Support
Clemson University and the University of South Carolina represent two of the only three R1 universities in South Carolina. Both institutions conduct diverse, cross-disciplinary research supported by multiple funding pipelines. In these complex research environments, data librarianship plays a crucial role in the organization by offering expertise in data management and sharing that other departments cannot provide. As data becomes increasingly vital for generating information and knowledge, libraries’ involvement in the research lifecycle grows ever more significant (Goldman et al., 2023).
However, at both our institutions, we are the sole data librarians, which often limits our outreach potential and can feel isolating. It is not uncommon for a single librarian at a university to be responsible for providing library-led data management and sharing support across the entire institution. This is certainly the case for both of us, even though we each work with teams of talented, committed colleagues with different areas of specialization. Like many institutions, we face common challenges in navigating federal data management policies. We observed that researchers were often uncertain about how to develop DMSPs and held uneven levels of discipline-specific data management expertise. Recognizing that these issues extended beyond our campuses, we saw an opportunity to pool our knowledge, coordinate messaging, and deliver guidance more effectively by working together.
Forming a Cross-Institutional Partnership
Our partnership began in 2024 through informal discussions that led us to discover our common challenges and opportunities. These casual conversations quickly evolved into purposeful collaboration as we acknowledged our shared commitment to enhancing research data literacy within our institutions. Importantly, our collaboration did not require identical resources or matching institutional capacities. Instead, we focused on strategic alignment by identifying our complementary strengths and areas of mutual benefit. We established shared goals and utilized our individual contributions to create a more unified and effective support system for researchers across the state. As noted in “Research Data Management Services in Academic Libraries to Support the Research Data Life Cycle,” a growing body of evidence suggests that partnerships have become an essential resource for academic libraries offering research data services, particularly for those with limited budgets and a limited ability to expand staffing (Ho et al., 2025).
The Open Access Week Workshop
Our partnership led to the development and presentation of a well-attended joint workshop that helped demystify the DMSP policy and provided our academic communities with helpful compliance strategies. We designed our workshop with both of our campuses in mind, but we also chose to publicize it more broadly because of its relevance and usefulness to others across the region. The workshop focused on key elements of the NIH DMSP, practical strategies for budgeting for data management and sharing, and an overview of repository options that align with NIH expectations and public access policies. We delivered the session virtually to increase accessibility and reduce barriers to participation.
We also promoted the event to librarians across the southeastern United States through ASERL, significantly expanding our audience beyond our original institutional communities in South Carolina. This broader reach underscored how our collaboration amplified the workshop’s impact. Co-developing all the materials and sharing the labor and expertise required to build the session allowed us to present a stronger, more unified message about supporting researchers through the NIH policy landscape. The success of this collaboration prompted us to consider other ways we could pool our resources and support the education of researchers in an evolving data landscape.
Looking Forward: Building a Sustainable, Statewide Research Data Culture
The work already undertaken during the Open Access Week collaboration is just beginning. We now look forward to offering additional training opportunities in the near future. In February, Clemson and the University of South Carolina will collaborate with the data librarian at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC, to present a unified slate of Love Data Week offerings across the state. Readers may be familiar with the challenge of creating innovative programming each year during this weeklong celebration of all things data. By collaboratively designing and delivering Love Data Week content for all of our institutions, we will reduce the individual burden and improve our ability to offer a range of topics and viewpoints. We will advertise our shared virtual programming throughout South Carolina via our statewide consortium, described below, so that other institutions can benefit from our presentations and workshops. A shared web presence will be created using LibGuides to facilitate this.
Another exciting outcome of the Love Data Week collaboration is the creation of South Carolina Love Data Week swag to be distributed at in-person events. Coastal Carolina boasts a robust makerspace, and Adam Johnson, the data librarian at Coastal, is leading the creation of button designs and other items. These will be shipped to Clemson and USC and will include branding for all three universities to signify our unified effort.
The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is the state’s academic library consortium. This organization provides access to resources and cooperative purchasing agreements for the state’s institutions of higher education. PASCAL hosts an annual Member Conference, which brings institutional members together to share initiatives and projects. In the coming year, the data librarians from Clemson, USC, and Coastal Carolina will submit a proposal to share the outcomes of our collaborative efforts with other colleagues in the state and to leverage our shared resources and training. Although most South Carolina college and university libraries do not have a dedicated data management position, the concepts of research data management and sharing continue to become increasingly important for all institutions of higher education. The PASCAL Member Conference will provide an excellent venue to share information with our neighbors.
Our long-term goal is to cultivate a statewide research data management and sharing community of practice and to develop the necessary infrastructure to support these activities. We do not want these collaborative efforts to be one-off events. We are reminded of the aphorism “a rising tide lifts all boats.” The few South Carolina institutions with data librarians can help ourselves, each other, and, by extension, the other colleges and universities in the state. PASCAL is a natural conduit for this community of practice and may potentially serve as a pathway for shared infrastructure. We hope our conference session will provide a launching point.
Benefits of Cross-Institutional Collaboration
These collaborative efforts we have highlighted benefit both librarians and our campus communities. Working together, we can improve message clarity and consistently guide researchers without reinventing the wheel. Having a close colleague or colleagues in the same state working on the same issues provides an invaluable sense of community, allowing us to break down silos and serve our researchers more efficiently. While we each attend conferences and are members of national groups of data librarians who provide shared resources, having local connections who understand our state’s unique political and social climate is particularly beneficial.
By collaborating, we now strengthen cross-institutional support and expand research data services across South Carolina. By sharing our knowledge with other state universities that lack designated data management staff yet actively pursue federal funding, we can serve as good stewards of expertise across the state’s research community. Practicing open science involves transparency, providing context, and adhering to community standards. By joining forces, we can achieve the same goal—delivering training, sharing resources, and establishing standards of service to support both our institutions and colleges and universities across South Carolina.
Conclusion
The authors of this editorial recognize that our collaborative work is just beginning. However, we see great potential to serve our researchers, our universities, and our state. The NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy workshop is only the first of many planned collaborative efforts. Its success confirms for us that cross-institutional partnerships offer significant value, particularly in advancing data services in librarianship and supporting researchers in meeting evolving federal requirements.
This article serves as a call for data librarians at institutions nationwide to participate in local or regional partnerships, sharing the burden and privilege of providing resources and training for responsible data management. Federal policy is rapidly changing, and collaboration across institutions benefits everyone. It is important to come together to share expertise and experiences, and to provide our institutions with the resources needed to grow a culture committed to open science.
References
Goldman, J., Muilenburg, J., Schorr, A. N., Ossom-Williamson, P., & Uribe-Lacy, C. J. (2023). Trends in Research Data Management and Academic Health Sciences Libraries. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 42(3), 273-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2023.2218776
Ho, R. C. Y., Wong, S. N., Chia, P., Tang, C., & Ng, M. T. T. (2025). Research data management services in academic libraries to support the research data life cycle: A systematic review. An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.70008
Pellen, C., Munung, N. S., Armond, A. C., Kulp, D., Mansmann, U., Siebert, M., & Naudet, F. (2025). Data management and sharing. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 180, 111680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2025.111680
