This investigation of the use of database management systems (DBMS) in a research environment used the Rand Corporation as a case study. After a general introduction in section 1, eight sections present the major components of the study. Section 2 contains an overview of DBMS terminology and concepts, followed in section 3 by a general dsecription of a typical research environment and the uses of social science databases. Section 4 describes an existing research institution, the Rand Corporation, as an example. A comparison of the research environment and the business environment is presented in Section 5, together with suggestions as to why DBMS are successful in business but not in research. Section 6 covers the interrelationships between the research environment and DBMS in two ways: (1) the possible DBMS configurations within a research environment are described, and (2) the opinions of Rand computer users on the important DBMS features are presented. An evaluation of commercial DBMS based on the research database management requirements established in previous sections, is presented in section 7. Section 8 is a brief discussion on introducing a DBMS into a research environment, and the final section is a summary of the entire study. A glossary, seven appendices, and a 35-item bibliography complete the document. (JB)