Access to research data
Developments on the Internet are resulting in many new facilities for storing primary and secondary research data and making it accessible. This also creates possibilities for re-using data. SURFshare initiates projects for storing and preserving data.
Research Data Forum
SURFshare is working with the 3TU Data Centre, DANS, and the Netherlands Coalition for Digital Preservation (NCDD) and other organisations to ensure access to data. These organisations jointly form the Research data forum.
Overview of studies and projects
The titles of studies and projects in the image below provide a link to further information.
Action plan for research data
SURF has worked together with the three partners in Knowledge Exchange on the report 'A Surfboard for Riding the Wave'. This paper builds on the 'Riding the Wave' report and presents an overview of the present situation with regard to research data in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and offers broad outlines for a possible action programme for the four countries in realising the envisaged collaborative data infrastructure.
Controlled access and safe storage
In everyday work researchers experience several challenges in managing their valuable research data. The CARDS project aims to support researchers in storing their data securely and sharing in a controlled manner, without imposing constraints our limiting them in their practice.
Balancing interests in public-private projects
In the project Data in Public-Private Projects (DiPPP) the interests of the various parties has been investigated in joint public and privately funded research projects. This has been investigated in the light of making research data accessible.
White paper data professionals in the Netherlands
This white paper offers an overview of knowledge, experience and competences required in a position that is responsible for supporting the management of research data.
Book on activities in the Netherlands
The book Toegang tot Onderzoeksdata (Access to research data) is the fifth publication which has appeared in the SURFshare series and treats the sharing of research data. Although it treats the Dutch landscape two of the chapters of this book are in English.
National collaboration in storage
The Podium Plus project has investigated whether national collaboration in storing and providing access to research data is feasible. Storage (and providing access) is a new service for many insitutions and expensive to set up. In the project the wish of institutions to collaborate in a national infrastructure was investigated.
Researchers' wishes
The study What researchers want shows that researchers want support in storing their research data on a daily basis. They do regard preservation as a next step, outside their immediate scope of interest. This literature review collates the requirements of researchers with regard to storage of and access to research data. It is based on fifteen recent sources, covering the Netherlands, the UK, USA, Australia and Europe.
Select research data to be preserved
The quantity of research data continues to grow. Because of this increasing volume of data, it is important to know how long researchers and institutions want it to be preserved. Just as important is knowing what data is worth preserving. To help researchers decide, general guidelines have been drawn up for selecting the relevant information. The guidelines are based on three studies – from the perspective of three separate scientific/scholarly disciplines – that were commissioned by SURFfoundation and that looked at how researchers deal with research data and how they store and share it.
A brief summary of the three studies is available.
Legal Aspects
To ensure transparent access to research data, it is important to clarify the legal aspects of the data. At the behest of SURFshare, the Centre for Intellectual Property Law (CIER) at Utrecht University has drawn up a report on these matters. The report clarifies the issues concerned in legal protection for research data. The report considers situations in which researchers utilise other researchers’ data in their own research and situations in which a researcher wishes to protect his own raw data. The main focus is on researchers who re-use other researchers’ data.This study has been incorporated in a larger report comparing the legal situation regarding research data in the four Knowledge Exchange countries.
Organisational aspects in storing and sharing research data
Surf has provided an inventory of aspects related to the organisation of the storage and sharing of research data. This was undertaken for policy makers connected to the research institutes. The study provided recommendations for the national and institutional level and a recommendation to continue supporting open access.
Read more
Study into quality of research data
The study identified the most important challenges and relevant parties and offered recommendations and actions for the organisations involved. This includes NWO, DANS, 3TU Data Centre, VSNU and SURFfoundation.
Read more
Other projects
The 3TU Data Centre began a study early in 2009 on “Valuable Data and Services”. This project focused on identifying the perceived additional benefits of “publishing” data sets in a data archive. It produced a survey of the functional demands and requirements for working with a data repository for storing technical research data.
More information and contact
For more information, contact Wilma Mossink on +31 (0)30 234 6600