New version of the guide for research data management, from the Science Europe association, now includes eligibility criteria for reliable repositories, as well as guidelines for researchers and reviewers.
Science Europe, the association of organizations that fund scientific research in Europe, has updated its Practical Guide for International Alignment in Research Data Management. The first version of this document was published in January 2019 and has been adopted by several organizations, including the European Commission. The new version, explains Science Europe, in the introduction to this guide, intends to “present an expanded version of this guide”, with a special focus on evaluating data management platforms.
One of the main new features of the new version is related to the inclusion of criteria that qualify repositories as being “trustworthy”, as well as best practices and guidelines in this field. This new information is seen as being of strategic importance for organizations and researchers, highlights Science Europe, “helping to identify repositories to store and share data”.
“Ensuring access to data is one of the pillars of solid and reproducible scientific research”, highlights the guide, which details three types of criteria for selecting trusted repositories – the availability of persistent identifiers (PID), good practices related to metadata and also the guarantee of data integrity and preservation, as well as good licensing practices confidentiality.
Remember that, in Portugal, the FCT FCCN Unit has competences in defining Open Science policies, participating in working groups focused on topics such as access to publications or research data management.
You can consult the full version of the guide here.
