Research Data Alliance recommendations and guidelines on data sharing
During public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, responsible sharing of data in a timely and accurate manner is key to preparedness and response. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) has created global guidelines and recommendations for data sharing under COVID-19 in order to address this need.
The RDA’s COVID-19 Recommendations and Guidelines on Data Sharing provides detailed guidelines on data and software sharing to help researchers and data stewards to follow best practices to maximize the efficiency of their work and to act as a blueprint for future emergencies. It also provides recommendations to help policy makers maximize timely, quality data and software sharing and appropriate responses in such health emergencies.
The document addresses data sharing in the context of the following research domains and issues:
- Clinical Medicine
- Omics Practices
- Epidemiology
- Social Sciences
- Community Participation
- Indigenous Populations
- Research Software for Data Analysis
- Legal and Ethical Considerations
The RDA has also developed an infographic [ PDF (224 KB) - external link ] summarizing the objectives and key recommendations in the document.
The RDA’s COVID-19 Recommendations and Guidelines on Data Sharing includes advice to researchers on sharing COVID-19 research data. This advice includes:
- Ensure that research data is FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Consult the document, and the GoFAIR website for more information on how to make data FAIR.
- Create data management plans
- Use common generic as well as domain specific metadata standards, and persistent identifiers
- Deposit data in trusted repositories
- Provide access to the software that is essential for understanding the dataset
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