Funders, academic institutions, journals and data service providers adopt open access policies including the publication of data underlying research results. While these mandates are an important step towards open science, they often neglect that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to open research data across academic disciplines. Different disciplines produce different types of data and have various procedures for analysing, archiving and publishing it. Some have established data management procedures, norms or policies, making their research data open by default, while others do not. Consequently the Research Information Network (RIN) states in a report that

‘if the policies and strategies of research funders, universities and service providers are to be effective in optimising the use and exchange of scholarly information, they must be sensitive to the practices and cultures of different research communities.’

This briefing paper presents the current state of open research data across academic disciplines. It describes disciplinary characteristics inhibiting a larger take-up of open research data mandates. These characteristics include data management practices, disciplinary norms of data sharing, career-related factors, infrastructural factors, and legal and ethical questions of public access, Additionally, the paper presents the current strategies and policies established by funders, institutions, journals and data service providers alongside general data policies. It can be found on the website of PASTEUR4OA.

Open Access to research data is fast becoming recognised as complementary to Open Access to research publications, both key components of Open Science. While the PASTEUR4OA project targets the development and reinforcement of Open Access strategies and policies for research publications, the project also encourages the development of such policies for research data

This briefing paper provides an overview of the current situation with regards to Open Access to research data. It considers the benefits and challenges of opening up research data with a particular focus on current funder and institutional policy developments in Europe and further afield and shares resources and initiatives for further study. The paper is available from http://www.pasteur4oa.eu/resources.

Image CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay

We will be including a simple visual European timeline showing key dates and initiatives in the move towards Open Access to research data. Unfortunately one-page of A4 won’t do the timeline justice so I wanted to share my findings with you and ask if there are any significant events that have been missed!

This timeline builds on Peter Suber’s excellent Open Access timeline and the EC Open Science (Open Access) chronology, and adds in complimentary dates.

Sharing scientific results, or other forms of research, is not a new idea. The great Isaac Newton famously said of his own research methods: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants”, a quote built on an expression from the 12th century. Robert King Merton, one of key researchers leading in the sociology of science, advocated in as early as 1942 that the results of research should be freely accessible to all. “Each researcher must contribute to the “common pot” and give up intellectual property rights to allow knowledge to move forward.” The concept of Open Access to scientific data available in a digital form is attributed to the formation of the World Data Center system, created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year. For the International Council of Science (ICSU) who ran the system the idea of data sharing was to counteract the risk of data loss and to maximize data accessibility.

1942

• Robert King Merton, one of key researchers leading in the sociology of science, advocated in as early as 1942 that the results of research should be freely accessible to all. “Each researcher must contribute to the “common pot” and give up intellectual property rights to allow knowledge to move forward.”

1957

• The concept of Open Access to scientific data available in a digital form is attributed to the formation of the World Data Center system, created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year. For the International Council of Science (ICSU) who ran the system the idea of data sharing was to counteract the risk of data loss and to maximize data accessibility.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Data_Center]

2003

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) adopted its Data Sharing Policy http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/
  2003 – Royal Society report on keeping Science Open [https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2003/9845.pdf]
• European Union issued a directive on the re-use of public sector information [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2003L0098:20130717:EN:PDF]

2004

• 30 OECD countries form Declaration on Access to Research Data From Public Funding [http://acts.oecd.org/Instruments/ShowInstrumentView.aspx?InstrumentID=157]
• The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) issued a public statement calling for an open-access registry and database of drug trial data [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.21276/pdf]
• UK Digital Curation Centre (DCC) [http://www.dcc.ac.uk/] was launched funded by Jisc

2005

• Participants at the ENBI-GBIF Digitisation Workshop (Chania, Greece, January 2005) formulated a Statement On Free And Open Data Access [http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/pr/library?l=/access_statement/_EN_1.0_&a=i]
• Creative Commons officially launched Science Commons [http://creativecommons.org/science]
• Open Knowledge Foundation Network published a manifesto, Open Access to State-Collected Geospatial Data [http://www.pledgebank.com/geodata]
• CODATA announced the launch of the Global Information Commons for Science [http://www.codata.org/task-groups/global-information-commons-for-science-initiative]

2006

• U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) endorsed open access to data in its Cyberinfrastructure Vision For 21st Century Discovery, version 5.0 [http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/ci_v5.pdf]
• Charles Arthur and Michael Cross launched the Free Our Data campaign for open access to publicly-funded geodata in the UK with an article in The Guardian [http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/]
• Twenty-two US federal government agencies formed an Interagency Working Group on Digital Data (IWGDD) and plan to deposit the data generated by their research grantees in a network of OA repositories [http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007/03/agency-level-oa-data-policies-coming-to.html]
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued Principles And Guidelines For Access To Research Data From Public Funding to implement its Declaration on Access to Research Data From Public Funding (January 2004) [http://webdomino1.oecd.org/horizontal/oecdacts.nsf/Display/3A5FB1397B5ADFB7C12572980053C9D3?OpenDocument]
• In December 2006, the fledgling European Research Council (ERC) issued a Statement on Open Access that addressed both scientific publications and research data. This statement was made more concrete in the first issue of the ERC Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access, with a very clear line on the deposit of research data in relevant repositories within 6 months.
  The two documents can be downloaded from the ERC website (in fact, the document with the Guidelines from 2007 includes the Statement from 2006 as annex):
  ERC Scientific Council guidelines for open access (17 December 2007) [http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/erc_scc_guidelines_open_access.pdf] and ERC Scientific Council Statement on Open Access (1 December 2006)
  [http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/press_release/files/erc_scc_statement_2006_open_access_0.pdf]

2007

• ChemXSeer launched, an OA database and search engine for chemical literature, formulae, tables, and data. One of the co-developers was C. Lee Giles, who was also one of the co-developers of CiteSeer [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/]
• The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recommended “wide public access to research results to which no copyright restrictions apply” (i.e. data) [http://www.coe.int/cm/]
• The UK Medical Research Council added a data access policy to its larger open access policy [http://www.mrc.ac.uk/]
• Open Knowledge Foundation – draft Open Data Commons – Databases licence [http://opendatacommons.org/]
• Australian government proposed an Australian National Data Service (ANDS) to promote OA, preservation, and re-use of publicly-funded research data [http://www.ands.org.au/]
• Science Commons released its protocol for implementing open access data [http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/]
• EC conclusions on Scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation [http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/intm/97236.pdf]
• Results of question 21 on EU-level policies to improve access to and dissemination of raw data from ERA Green Paper presented at a hearing in Brussels [http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/hearing-24september_summary_en.pdf]
• The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recommended “wide public access to research results to which no copyright restrictions apply” (i.e. data) [http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/highereducation/News/pub_res_EN.pdf]

2008

• Office of Public Sector Information Data Unlocking Service is launched [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/OPSIpage.aspx?page=UnlockIndex]
• Dariah Project (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) launched [http://www.dariah.eu/]

2009

• US government was the first to establish its own open data portal, data.gov [http://www.data.gov/]
• Panton Principles for open data formulated [https://pantonprinciples.org/]
• First Report of the European Research Area Board called ‘Preparing Europe for a New Renaissance: A Strategic View of the European Research Area’ [http://ec.europa.eu/research/erab/pdf/erab-first-annual-report-06102009_en.pdf]
• Jisc Managing research data Programme commences [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/managing-research-data]
• Open Knowledge Open Science Working Group launched [http://science.okfn.org/]

2010

• DMPOnline launched: enables users to create data management plans [https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/]

2010

• ODE (Opportunities for Data Exchange) Project launched [http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/survey-on-scientific-information-digital-age_en.pdf]
• OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) Project launched [https://www.openaire.eu/]
• Riding the wave report: How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data [http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/hlg-sdi-report.pdf]

2011

• Open Data Research network launched, a collaborative project, coordinated by the Web Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) [http://linkedscience.org/]
• World Bank’s repository launched [http://data.worldbank.org/]
• RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy [http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/datapolicy/]
• Jisc Digital infrastructure for research data management Programme: Improving the capability of the institutions taking part to manage their research data [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/digital-infrastructure-for-research-data-management]

2012

• LinkedUp Project (Linking Web data for Education) launched [http://linkedup-project.eu/]
• The Commission released the Report on the online survey on scientific information in the digital age held from July-September 2011 [http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/survey-on-scientific-information-digital-age_en.pdf]
• EU Communication on Towards better access to scientific information:Boosting the benefits of public investments in research [http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/era-communication-towards-b]
• EU Data Protection Regulations published [http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/document/review2012/com_2012_11_en.pdf]

2013

• EC’s Working Group on Text and Data Mining (TDM) Licences for Europe Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe [https://ec.europa.eu/licences-for-europe-dialogue/en/content/text-and-data-mining-working-group-wg4]
• The first plenary meeting and official launch of Research Data Alliance held in Gothenburg, Sweden [https://www.rd-alliance.org/]
• Horizon2020 Data Pilot announced [http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-data-mgt_en.pdf]
• RECODE Project (Policy Recommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe) launched [http://recodeproject.eu/]
• EC released the Report on a public consultation on open research data held in July 2013 in Brussels [http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/report_2013-07-open_research_data-consultation.pdf]
• EC Data Harvest Report [http://europe.rd-alliance.org/documents/publications-reports/data-harvest-how-sharing-research-data-can-yield-knowledge-jobs-and]

2014

• Jisc Research Data Spring launched [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/research-data-spring]
• EC public consultation launched on Science 2.0 [http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-761_en.htm]
• EC Report on text and data mining [http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/TDM-report_from_the_expert_group-042014.pdf]
• FOSTER Project (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research) launched [https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/]
• PASTEUR4OA Project (Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research) launched [http://www.pasteur4oa.eu/]
• UK Research Data Discovery Service project pilot [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/uk-research-data-discovery]
• Contentmine launches [http://contentmine.org/]