My name is Marisa Lytle, and I am a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Developmental Psychology program at Penn State. I currently serve as a data stewardship graduate assistant with the Data Learning Center at Penn State University Libraries. At the RDAP 2025 Summit, I had the opportunity to present our ongoing review project, which aims to collect, categorize, and share survey and interview measures related to researchers’ data management needs and their perceptions of research data services [Poster: "A Scoping Review to Collect and Disseminate Survey and Interview Measures of Researcher Data Management Needs and Perceptions of Data Management Services"].

During the poster session, we received thoughtful feedback and valuable resources that will help us refine our gray literature search strategies and better capture a broader range of surveys. This was also the largest audience I’ve ever had viewing any of my research posters, which was encouraging and provided us with a lot of great ideas for the future of our project. We also made several meaningful connections with others conducting similar work or who have unpublished or hard-to-find survey measures they wished to share with us. If you’re reading this and happen to have relevant survey or interview instruments, feel free to send those our way!

One of the biggest takeaways for me was the culture of openness and collaboration that permeated the sessions I attended. Many presenters went out of their way to provide links or contact information to access workshop materials, handouts, and other resources which is a level of transparency and sharing that is not yet the norm in my field of psychology. The insights shared during RDAP, especially tips on how to make data management workshops more engaging in the sessions Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Partnerships ["Stronger Together: Ecosystem-Level Approaches to Strengthening Data Sharing Infrastructures"; "Collaborative Modalities for Data Services Instruction and Outreach"; "Investigating and Addressing the Needs of Research Support Staff"; "Send It Away, or Put It On Display? How to Talk with Research Computing Staff"] and Training and Mentorship in RDM ["Using a Faculty Recruitment Strategy to Train Research Staff and Students to Develop Data Management Plans"; "Building Resilient Research Practices: Integrating RDM into Graduate Education"; "Training a Student to Train the Trainer: An LIS Masters Student’s Internship Project On Developing an RDM Toolkit for Liaison Librarians"; "Supporting Our Future Colleagues: Remote Student-Led Data Internship"] left me inspired to think creatively about how to communicate RDM practices to researchers in my own discipline. Together the tips and collaborative environment sparked new ideas for how I might encourage my colleagues to adopt more open research practices and promote engagement with research data management within psychology.

I also greatly enjoyed attending the new members and first-time attendees social event! The organizers did an excellent job creating a welcoming and engaging virtual space with fun social activities and trivia, while also allowing time for casual conversations. Virtual socializing can often feel awkward or forced, but I left the event feeling truly welcomed, connected, and with a renewed sense of belonging as someone entering the RDAP community from outside the field of library and information sciences. I’m excited to continue learning from and contributing to the RDAP community!

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