Making data open access requires a lot of planning as soon as data collection starts. Legal constraints (especially General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)), as well as deadlines set by funding bodies, influence making the data openly accessible. Moreover, making data openly accessible for easy discovery and use, requires not only the efforts of the researcher, but also a reliable and sophisticated infrastructure.

Data governance plan

This is a document that specifies:

  • how the data collected or generated during the research will be handled during and after the project, to ensure that it is stored in a secure and reliable way;
  • how and under what conditions it will be made available for re-use, unless there are conflicting legal, ethical or security reasons;
  • when and how it will be available to other users;
  • what standard metadata will be used to describe it;
  • how the obtained data will be processed and updated;
  • which data will be for long-term and which for short-term storage, in the latter case specifying when and how the data will be deleted.

Scientific data must be managed at all stages of research: planning, implementation, and publication. The researcher must anticipate conditions for access, storage and publication of the results of the research, and scientific data.

The DMP Online provides templates for data management plans, which are recommended by the funding institutions for use and customization for the project promoters.

How to choose a data repository

Sometimes the research funding institution specifies which data repository to choose. However, if you have a choice, consider the OpenAIRE recommendations.

Upload your data into a trusted repository of your scientific field. The CESSDA archives are an example of reliable single-subject repositories. Please note that not all types of data are accepted into the repositories (e.g. surveys are accepted but not qualitative data). High-quality data that can be reused is often submitted and stored in this type of repository.

If none of the previous options are available, choose a multi-subject repository, e.g. ZenodoFigshare or Harvard Dataverse. In these repositories, you can register, store, and share your scientific data. Please note that repositories do not always provide long-term data storage. Check for how long the data is going to be stored in the repository of your choice.

Search the re3data.org repository registry, where you will find over 2,500 registered data repositories. You can search by subject, type of content or country. You can also choose whether to look for certified data archives, repositories ensuring open access or providing permanent identifier.

RDA in Lithuania

Research Data Alliance (RDA)  is a global organisation established in 2013 by the European Commission, the US National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation. The mission of this community-led organisation is to build social and technical networks that enable the open sharing and re-use of data. A fast-growing international coordination and collaboration initiative makes a major contribution to the development of European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Kaunas University of Technology is one of the institutions promoting the development of activities of the Research Data Alliance in Europe. The national coordination of the Research Data Alliance is based on the cooperation of a group of experts representing the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Kaunas University of Technology, Vilnius University, and the international organisation Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). The activities of this group of experts are focused on promoting research data management activities in Lithuania in order to adapt and implement the recommendations of the Research Data Alliance, to improve the legal framework and the research infrastructure, and to disseminate advanced practices in research data management in Lithuania.

The work of the expert group is coordinated by the Head of the Scientific Information Division of Kaunas University of Technology Library
Dr. Ieva Cesevičiūtė
ieva.ceseviciute@ktu.lt

RDA resources