Abstract

This study examined the influence of Research Data Management (RDM) practices on data integrity, data accessibility, and research collaboration among researchers at Federal University Dutse. The study had four objectives: assessing RDM practices adopted by researchers, determining the level of data integrity associated with RDM practices, examining the influence of RDM practices on data accessibility, and determining their influence on research collaboration. The FAIR Data Principles guided the study. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted, with a population of 189 professorial academic staff at Federal University Dutse. The 12 faculties were stratified according to disciplinary areas; total enumeration was used to cover all 189 eligible researchers. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. Findings revealed a moderate level of RDM practices (overall mean = 3.34), with data backup (M = 3.74), organisation (M = 3.68), and secure storage (M = 3.61) most prominent, whereas metadata creation (M = 2.96), standardised file formats (M = 3.08), and data sharing (M = 3.12) were less adopted. Data integrity was high (M = 3.52), with RDM practices significantly influencing it (R² = 0.464, p < .001). Data accessibility was also high (M = 3.42), with significant influence from RDM practices (R² = 0.524, p < .001). Research collaboration was moderate to high (M = 3.39), with significant influence from RDM practices (R² = 0.426, p < .001). All three null hypotheses were rejected. The study concluded that systematic RDM practices are important for protecting research data quality, improving accessibility, and supporting collaborative research. It recommended strengthening institutional RDM policies, providing regular training, improving secure storage and repository infrastructure, and promoting responsible data sharing.