6.1.1. Existing Digital Scholarship Services

Research results show that VNU-HCM has not had a comprehensive DSS system at both VNU-HCM system and member university levels.

At the system level, the research results indicate the absence of centers, departments, and projects related to DSSs except for some activities carried out by the Central Library. One of the university managers said that “We mainly rely on our university’s conditions to support digital scholarship for lecturers and learners. There is no center or department responsible for coordinating this activity from VNU-HCM.” DSSs were mainly provided at the member university level rather than at the system level. In this context, the Central Library is expected to deliver system-level DSSs. However, the study shows that DSSs were still underdeveloped in this library’s service system. This was confirmed by the manager of the Central Library:

It can be seen that the provision of electronic databases and space by the Central Library was still considered the main digital scholarship support activity at the system level.

At the member university level, the six member universities had more activities to support digital scholarship, although these were not yet systematically implemented and did not really meet users’ needs. The research data show that DSSs were provided internally by each member university. There was no uniformity and very little cooperation among the six members. They provided a number of services that fell within the following five DSS groups: (1) research project management, (2) digital data management, (3) providing digital methods, tools, and information resources, (4) digital sharing and publishing, and (5) digital scholarship connections.

For research project management, six services were identified including (1) information provision, training, and seminars on research management; (2) information provision, training, and seminars on copyright and intellectual property; (3) supporting the planning of research project management; (4) Supporting the implementation of research projects; (5) help in seeking and applying for research funding; and (6) copyright registration (Table 3). The USSH was the only one to not indicate the presence of any service in this service group, while the other member universities provided at least one service. The UIT provided the most services (four). Help in seeking and applying for research funding appeared in four out of six member universities. In the meantime, there were two services offered by only one member university: (1) information provision, training, and seminars on copyright and intellectual property; (2) supporting the implementation of research projects.

The digital data management services group seems to receive little attention from member universities as only three services were identified, including (1) data search and collection; (2) data cleaning and standardization; and (3) data storage (Table 4). At the same time, these three services were only available in two of the six member universities. There was an absence of many research data lifecycle management services.

The service group related to providing digital methods, tools, and information resources was considered the most popular and provided by the most member universities. Six services belonging to this service group were recognized, including (1) providing a venue for digital data processing; (2) providing digital tools; (3) providing data storage space; (4) supporting the use of digital tools and methods in research; (5) supporting the use of digital tools and methods in teaching and learning; and (6) providing information resources (Table 5). Two of the six services in this group were delivered by all member universities: (1) supporting the use of digital tools and methods in teaching and learning, and (2) providing information resources. Meanwhile, the provision of data storage space was offered by only one member university.

For digital sharing and publishing, three services were identified: (1) consulting/training/workshops on how to publish; (2) assisting with publishing in institutional repositories; and (3) assisting with publishing in scientific journals (Table 6). Five out of six member universities provided assistance with journal publication. Meanwhile, assisting with publishing in institutional repositories was implemented by only one member university. The UT provided the most services in this group (three services).

For digital scholarship connections, participants indicated the presence of three services: (1) organizing events and discussions about research using digital methods and tools; (2) providing a physical venue for academic interaction; and (3) connecting researchers (Table 7). Research data show that organizing events and discussions about research using digital methods and tools was implemented by only one member university, while the other two services were offered by four out of six member universities.

6.1.2. Parties Involved in the Provision of Digital Scholarship Services

The results of the data analysis show that DSSs at VNU-HCM’s member universities were primarily provided by the following units: the Department of Research Affairs, Department of Postgraduate Affairs, Department of Information Technology, libraries, research centers, and faculties. In addition, there was digital scholarship support from lecturers or research groups rather than being formally provided by the universities. The results of this study indicate that the above individuals or units delivered various DSSs (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Parties involved in the provision of digital scholarship services.

The presence of libraries in four out of five groups of DSSs, except for digital research data management, showed the important role of libraries in digital scholarship, as acknowledged by one of the lecturers: “When it comes to digital scholarship, I immediately think of libraries.”

Member universities’ research centers also offered a number of DSSs related to (1) DIGITAL research project management, (2) digital data management, and (3) providing digital methods, tools, and information resources. Specifically, the managers of the member universities said that research centers assisted in finding research funding: “My university’s Innovation Center supports finding research funding sources from organizations and provinces” as well as collecting and cleaning data: “The Center for Economic and Financial Research buys the Thompson Reuters database as well as helps to collect and clean data.”

The Department of Research Affairs and the Department of Postgraduate Affairs mostly provided services related to (1) research project management and (2) digital sharing and publishing. This was reflected in the following statements of both a university manager and a postgraduate student: “The Department of Postgraduate Affairs provides advice to students on doing research and writing theses and papers,” and

Faculties focused on running DSSs related to (1) research project management, and (2) providing digital methods, tools, and information resources. These included training courses and guidelines about learning and research activities or providing digital materials, as shared by both a postgraduate student and a library manager: “Our faculty organizes seminars and trainings for lecturers and students with the participation of foreign researchers,” and “Some faculties provide additional digital materials for their lecturers and students.”

The Department of Information Technology also supported digital scholarship activities, mainly in terms of infrastructure and digital means and tools, as confirmed by a lecturer: “The Department of Information Technology supports the installation of software and provides instructions on how to design online lessons.”

Research results show that there was also support from lecturers or research groups for learners and colleagues in most service groups, except for digital data management. Such support might include providing digital tools, as a lecturer said: “I sometimes receive digital tool-related support from research groups”; or providing materials, as confirmed by a postgraduate student: “My lecturer can download some materials for me that I cannot download because of the cost.” Leaving lecturers or research groups to solve the problem of digital tools on their own might lead to a concern that the quality and validity of digital tools cannot be guaranteed; in particular, some of the software were provided to learners in the form of pirated versions. One of the university managers said that: “There are expensive software tools that the university cannot support. Therefore, most lecturers have to find a way to use them. This may lead to copyright infringement.”

6.1.3. Evaluation of Digital Scholarship Services

Some DSSs, although not many, received positive feedback from research participants in terms of service attitude and costs to use DSSs.

Specifically, the staff were very supportive and had a good attitude when providing services, as commented by a lecturer: “The staff of the Department of Research Affairs [are] very enthusiastic in advising and guiding the application for research funding”; one of the students also said that: “The librarians are very supportive in searching for articles in the databases.” At the same time, “Currently the services are completely free,” as shared by a postgraduate student, was also considered a plus point for DSSs at member universities.

In addition to the positive responses, the results of the data analysis reveal the limitations of the DSSs currently being provided. The responses largely concentrated on providing information resources and digital tools. This could be attributed to the fact that these were the most common services offered by all member universities, as described in Subsection 6.1.1.

Among the existing DSSs, the provision of information resources was considered one of the basic services provided by all member universities. It therefore received lots of feedback on quality improvement. Research participants indicated that the provision of information resources did not meet the needs of users. Access to full-text databases was very limited, as a lecturer commented: “During my research I used some databases of both libraries, but most of the databases only provide access to abstracts of articles rather than the full text.” In addition, information resources were not fully updated to help researchers have appropriate sources for research purposes, especially in the fields of natural sciences and engineering. One of the lecturers said that “VNU-HCM’s digital information resources are not up-to-date [...] my university’s researchers cannot access the latest articles in our research area.” The lack of digital resources was also mentioned by one of the lecturers: “Libraries mainly provide printed materials instead of electronic documents which are essential for digital teaching activities.” Although institutional repositories are considered popular at universities around the world, VNU-HCM’s member universities have not paid much attention to building their own institutional repository to take advantage of their academic community’s own publication. A library manager said that “The university has not collected and distributed scientific publications authored by lecturers.” The search system was also not convenient and easy to use according to the following statement of a postgraduate student: “In the past, I searched for documents through the Central Library’s search system, but I found that this was too complicated, so I then only use the materials in my university library.”

As for the provision of digital tools, although there were certain supports in terms of digital tools and methods in teaching and learning, it is said that the university had not yet responded to the demand for use in practice. Online learning systems were considered unstable, as one of the university managers commented: “Although online teaching is encouraged, it is not based on a stable platform.” In addition, the tools to support learning and research activities had not yet met the actual needs, as said by one of the postgraduate students: “The university provides us with experimental servers that I can remotely control to work. However, this server does not meet the requirements of the research topic, so we have to rent the machine ourselves from outside services.”

6.2.1. Space

The space mentioned by research participants was mainly group study rooms for learners and research rooms for lecturers. These spaces had been improved to support academic activities as confirmed in the following statement by a postgraduate student: “The library has research rooms. The library has been repaired recently, so the space for academic activities is much better.”

Although the physical spaces had been greatly improved, the study participants still believed that the necessary facilities for academic activities were not provided satisfactorily. Taking self-study rooms as an example, one of the students said that:

At the same time, the space for researchers was still quite limited, as said by one of the lecturers: “An associate professor even does not have his own workplace.” Besides this, the lack of development of digital spaces could also be seen as a barrier to DSSs, as indicated by a postgraduate student: “In terms of digital space, it is quite limited, almost nothing.”

6.2.2. Technology Infrastructure

Similar to the space matter, member universities’ technology infrastructure had improved dramatically over the past few years, as confirmed by one of the lecturers: “My university’s technology infrastructure has been upgraded […] Five years ago the technology infrastructure had many limitations, but the system has been much improved in recent years.”

Although there was an improvement in technology infrastructure, research participants showed that member universities needed to pay more attention to this issue in order to implement DSSs effectively. Technology infrastructure was said to be old and unsustainable, as confirmed by one of the library managers: “The technology infrastructure has not been built as in some way sustainable. It is old and often damaged. As a result, it is difficult to implement new services.”

In addition, one of the university managers said that the investment in technology infrastructure was fragmented and not comprehensive: “The development of DSSs requires the synchronization of both technology infrastructure and data. However, this has not happened in practice in member universities.”

Website and Internet access were the issues that were mentioned most frequently by the study participants. The lack of stability of the website system might affect the provision of services. This was reflected in the following comment of a lecturer: “My university’s website is often down. The current information technology system of my university does not ensure the effective implementation of DSSs to the academic community at large.” Furthermore, the slow Internet connection speed had caused great difficulties for academic activities. One of the students said that “The Internet connection speed is very slow. We have to buy a 4G Internet package ourselves to access the Internet.”

6.2.3. Finance

Several financial aspects were also mentioned to show the impact of this resource on the delivery of DSSs. First, libraries had limited funding support to develop information resources, as said by a lecturer: “The library responded to me that there were many databases that we could not access the full-text articles due to insufficient funds.” Second, financial support to purchase digital tools for teaching and research had also not met the demand. One of the library managers said that “The limited funding means that we do not dare to invest more in digital tools.”

6.2.4. Human Resources

As mentioned in the research context, VNU-HCM in general and its member universities in particular have a large number of staff. This can be seen as an advantage when implementing DSSs. However, the research results show that there are still many concerns around the service delivery capacity of this workforce. Specifically, there was an opinion that staff knowledge and skills to support research were limited, as shared by a lecturer: “Current human resources can only support the general administrative tasks of the university, but they do not have the capacity to support the lecturers in the process of conducting research.” Not only that, delays in implementing DSSs could result from the limited capacity of librarians. According to a library manager, “The library is still weak in providing DSSs because of limitations in the capacity of librarians.”

6.2.5. Stakeholders

The research results indicate two issues that need to be resolved related to stakeholders when implementing DSSs at VNU-HCM in general and member universities in particular: cooperation and awareness.

As described in Subsection 6.1.2, the current provision of DSSs originated from the Department of Research Affairs, Department of Postgraduate Affairs, Department of Information Technology, libraries, research centers, faculties, and lecturers. Available evidence shows that the stakeholders did not have a systematic coordination in building and providing DSSs. One of the library managers said that

At the same time, not all stakeholders were aware of the importance of digital scholarship to implement DSSs, as indicated by a university manager:

6.3.1. Service Development Policy

Research results show that the universities also had ideas surrounding the development of digital scholarship and supporting services to meet the requirements of the transformation in teaching, learning, and research. This was confirmed by some university managers: “Ten years ago, my university also had discussions related to digital scholarship development, but it has not been well implemented,” and “In previous years, the issue of digital scholarship development has been discussed, but many things are needed to implement it.”

VNU-HCM in general and member universities did not have a clear strategy for how to develop digital scholarship. This might lead to paying insufficient attention to the policy of developing DSSs, or a lack of investment in resources to support the development of DSSs, as well as a lack of systematicity in the implementation of DSSs. One of the university managers said that

The library managers also reinforced this point of view when they said that

And

6.3.2. Service Governance Model

Research results show that existing DSSs were mainly implemented and managed at the member university level. One of the university managers said that “Because there is no common policy on the management of academic activities of VNU-HCM, member universities manage their digital scholarship support activities based on their own conditions.”

At the member university level, DSSs were mainly provided by a few units, as described in Subsection 6.1.2. At the same time, these services were managed separately by those units instead of being systematically implemented under a common service management policy at each member university. This was reflected in the following opinions of library managers:

And