Becoming a Data Steward (Speaker Notes at Social Psychology Seminar at the University of Delaware, 3 September 2025)
I gave a talk at Social Psychology Seminar at the University of Delaware on 3 September 2025. I talked about my career trajectory from my PhD to becoming a Data Steward.
Below are my speaker notes that I prepared. The actual talk may have deviated from what I wrote here.
Just wanted to share. So here it goes.
Introduction to the talk #
It's great to be back at the Social Psychology Seminar.
Last time I was here, I presented about my dissertation.
First, a little bit about me. My name is Nami. My pronouns are he/him. I'm from Japan, and I live in the Netherlands.
Now, I work as a Data Steward at a university called Eindhoven University of Technology.
Data Steward? You may be wondering—what is it? The Data Steward's job is to help researchers manage their data better. More practically, I advise researchers on how to best manage data and code, and share them responsibly.
For me, it's about the way towards creating a more open and better world. The passion that I found early in my life during my undergraduate years.
I'd like to go back there and begin my story.
Philippines and feeling inequality in research and education community #
My journey to open science started back then I was in college, in the Philippines.
I was studying psychology, and I liked the subject. Just like a proper future graduate student, I used to spend a lot of time studying in the library.
The textbooks at the library described many interesting studies, mostly from developed countries, like the United States or Europe.
I was not satisfied with just reading summaries in those textbooks—I wanted to read the original published manuscript in journals, so that I know more details about the study.
One day, I learned that I could access online journals at the computers at the library. So I took notes of the published studies that I want to access. And went to the computer floor.
The floor was access controlled, so I had to leave my student ID at the desk. I got seated in front of an outdated computer, and started to search for the published articles.
But I could not find any of them in the database.
Later, I learned that my university only had money to afford journals in nursing, which was the most popular program at that time. What about psychology journals? No access.
Disappointed with the journal subscription situation at my university, I went home and started to search for the papers online.
And lo and behold, I was able to find many of the articles freely online. Many were uploaded on the researchers own website. Probably they were violating the terms with the publishers. But I liked the act of civil disobedience.
Through my experience, I realized two things. First is the power of openness. We can make the world a better place by sharing knowledge openly, especially with those who don't have access. Secondly, I realized the massive inequality between the countries in the world. Students and researchers in the rich institutions do not have any problem accessing information, but those in the Global South are deprived of access.
My journey to Open Science started that time.
Doing PhD research, pre-registration, and meeting the Netherlands #
I wanted to study in the US. The materials that I was reading often came from the US, and I thought the US was the place to be.
So after college, I went on getting my master's in psychology at Western Illinois University in Illinois.
Then, I came to the University of Delaware to work with Lisa.
Before coming to Delaware, I already had some interests in Open Science, such as uploading my conference poster to the Open Science Framework.
But it was at the UD where I grew my interest in doing open science I did. I want to thank Lisa for supporting me.
I planned preregistration studies. It was a lot of work because neither of us knew what it should be. But it was fun to figure out.
Eventually, we were able to do several pre-registration studies together.
That said, I felt like we were a bit isolated. Are there others who are also passionate about open science?
Around that time, I learned about the Society for Improvement of Psychological Science, the society whose goal is to improve how to do scholarship in psychology.
It was 2019, and the conference was in the Netherlands, in the city of Rotterdam. I only knew the Netherlands as the country of tulip and cheese at that time. I obtained funding for the summer, and traveled to the Netherlands.
Falling in love personally #
And I arrived in Amsterdam, and I was impressed right away about the independence from cars. I could ride a high-speed train from the airport to Rotterdam. Not a metro, not a tram, but an actual train people use to commute from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. How cool is that?
As a Japanese I felt a lot of affinity with the collective love and obsession with the trains
Many people already know that the Netherlands has a great bike infrastructure. And indeed, the infrastructure is great. There are protected bike paths everywhere. And remember—do not ever walk on the bike path. You will be in danger! Please don't ask how I found out.
The trains and bike paths were very impressive to see. But, at its core, it's about attention and care for people in public places. The streets have benches where people can sit. Car traffic is separated from pedestrian traffic. People see other people riding the trains, bikes, and, of course, walking around. All these designs facilitate a sense of being together in the society. In the US, we were usually stuck in our car, looking at each other as big metal objects, not as humans.
I fell in love with the country pretty quickly.
Falling in love professionally #
The public spaces in the Netherlands are great, but to be honest, I did not have much time to fully experience them because I spent time mostly at the conference venue.
But, I did not regret it because I had a great time at the conference. It was the experience that I was looking for--connecting with people who are passionate about improving how we do research.
In addition, I also liked the European academic system that treats PhD graduate students as workers, not as just students. During the lunch, I had an opportunity to speak with other graduate students. I shared that PhD graduate students in the US do not have 12-month pay and paid leaves. Many European colleagues were surprised to hear that.
The confusion and horror in their faces
All in all, it's clear to me that I want to be in this environment both personally and professionally, and I want to live in it and support it.
That's why I decided to move to the Netherlands. It was still 2019. Long before defending my dissertation.
Finishing dissertation, job search, dark times, and reclaiming my purpose #
I came back from the Netherlands, and I started to work towards my dissertation. At that time, I was aiming to graduate in 2020.
However, the COVID pandemic happened in 2020, and I had to delay my graduation to 2021.
A year later, I graduated.
But in that year, I was not ready to move to the Netherlands yet. I just graduated. The world was still in a pandemic mode. And I did not have much funding to move.
So I worked at a non-profit organization called Tech Impact for a year as a Data Science Fellow.
Toward the end of my fellowship, I was applying for jobs in the Netherlands. But I did not get any responses. I tried various kinds of jobs, from teaching positions at universities to data analyst positions at industry. But they did not go well.
Even to Booking.com. Looking back, it may not have been a wise choice.
Moving nevertheless, amid the housing crisis #
I applied to various types of jobs in the Netherlands, but I could not get an offer. Nevertheless, I decided to move. After all, it was my intention to move, rain, or shine.
Warning—not for everyone.
The first question when moving is—where to live?
I was looking into how to find housing in the Netherlands. It proved to be a difficult process. There was not been enough housing units, so the competition was (and still is) really high. To win the competition, the potential renters need to submit supporting documents, such as certificate of employment, income statements, a letter of good conduct from a previous landlord, and even a personal letter of motivation explaining the background.
Doing all of this from abroad in the US? It was an impossible task.
Around this time, I reached out to Jan, who lives in Amsterdam. Jan was a visiting PhD student at the University of Delaware, working with Mike Kuhlman. Gladly, he offered me and my wife to rent his apartment for one months, while he and his partner are on vacation.
The offer gave us courage. We had a place to stay for one month, while looking for an apartment.
In October 2022, my wife, our cat, and I are in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Five suitcases. One of them was for the cat.
Still no job in the Netherlands #
I continued to apply various types of jobs in the Netherlands, but I could not get an offer.
Application after application, I was getting rejection letter.
Many people did wish me luck for future endeavors in the rejection letters!
But I was losing faith in me.
I doubted my decision--perhaps, the Netherlands was not the country for me.
I doubted myself--am I not good enough?
Without work, the balance in the bank account was decreasing.
I had only one month. No house, no work, and no one else to lean on.
I felt like I was in a dark place.
The mysterious job posting #
One chilly morning in Amsterdam, I saw a job posting. The job description was nothing like what I saw before. It talked about open science, research data management, and overall doing research better. I have never heard of data steward.
Until that point, my resume was very technical with mentions about programming languages and statistical skills. The Data Steward Job? It did not require any of that.
I thought, it’s going to require a lot of rewrite on my resume. But I saw something about this posting. Open science, doing science better—they all aligned with my values. And my origin goal of why I wanted to move to the Netherlands. This was it. I decided to overhaul my resume. And sent in my application.
And glad that I did.
Within days, I received a call from the office assistant. I was invited for the first interview, second interview, and I got an offer. It happened so quickly. It was December.
Oh and I got Covid right after. So I did not have much time to celebrate. Oh well. But it was worth job.
Data steward #
The job of a Research Data Steward is to help researchers manage research data well. It involves many things.
Data stewards can support ethics applications, especially when data come from human participants. In EU, handling personal data requires extra care thanks to General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR.
Data steward can give advice on where to best store data.
Exchanging data between collaborating universities requires data agreements. Data stewards can support along with that.
But most importantly for me, a data steward can help researchers to share their research openly, as much as possible. So that the impact of the research can go beyond the publication.
After all, the research is not all about publication. All the steps count. I'm happy that I can help people to be open to share their work. At universities, we are funded by public money. We have a responsibility to make results as accessible as possible to the world.
Things I'd do differently #
I have two things that I'd do differently.
First, I'd have spent more time focusing on finding my purpose. The time that I spent crafting resumes for travel companies (such as Booking.com) could have been spent understanding myself and what I really wanted in my life.
Two, I was reaching out to researchers in the Netherlands from the US. And most of them were really welcoming to have a conversation online. In one call, a senior researcher said that he would be happy to welcome me as a visiting researcher if I was still in the PhD program since it's a common thing to do for them. I thought I could have applied.
Continuing my journey to find my purpose #
I was not sure how to prepare for this seminar. Where to start? Should I talk about the details about the work of a data steward? Should I be the salesperson of the Netherlands? Should I follow the suit of the NWO, Dutch equivalent of NSF, to recruit academics from abroad?
One thing that I'm sure is to tell a story with a message.
And the message is this:
Nothing in my career journey makes sense, except in the light of finding my purpose, my voice.
Right now, my purpose is to advance equitable research communities from the perspective of open science.
It's a continuous struggle to listen to my voice. My voice can be sometimes very soft, also in the real life. I can barely hear it.
I'm glad that I accepted this opportunity to talk with you today. I was able to reflect, and put together the pieces. I now feel that I understand myself better.
Thank-you's #
Special thanks to Yanzi and Maggie for organizing the talk.
Thank you, Lisa, for the mentorship during my PhD journey.
And thanks to everyone who came in today.
Lastly, I want to thank Mike Kuhlman, who is no longer with us. He was the first person who keenly pointed out that I liked writing code. That affirmed my voice. I continue my journey advocating for open-source software.