UK: Just Released: “Realising the Potential: Final Report of the Open Research Data Task Force”

In a JISC Blog Post, Neil Jacobs Provides a summary of the Open Research Data Taskforce (ORDTF) report:

As research becomes ever more digital, the ways in which it tackles transparency and accountability must change.

These changes are cultural, organisational, legal, technological and social; government, research funders and universities have important roles in shaping the environment in which they take place.

The health of that environment is vital in attracting the international staff, students, collaboration and investment that will determine whether, or not, the UK meets its target of investing 2.4% in research and innovation by 2027.

In a move which could further this aim, the government has just released advice from Professor Adam Tickell on moving toward greater open access (OA) to research publications, and the report of the Open Research Data Taskforce (ORDTF).

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The ORDTF recommendations are less specific, and instead draw from a wealth of evidence to provide a strategic steer. Some, in effect, overlap with Tickell’s recommendations:

• Better incentives, such as via revised research assessment practices, to share and use research data
• Harmonised funder policies on open science, and the provision of adequate funding to support the transition to more open science
• More user-friendly services for research data management, reducing the administrative burden
• The need to maintain strong international engagement in pursuing open science

Other recommendations are more specific to research data infrastructure. The report advocates a set of principles for negotiation with commercial providers of research data infrastructure to maximise interoperability, retain data ownership and reduce the risk of ‘lock-in’, and also that the costs, business and funding models of current data services be reviewed.

Read the Complete Post by Neil Jacobs

Released Today

Realising The Potential: Final Report Of The Open Research Data Task Force
64 pages; PDF.

Case Studies: Annex to the Final Report of the Open Research Data Task Force
64 pages; PDF.

Response to the ORDTF Report From Chris Skidmore MP to Professor Pam A. Thomas
1 page; PDF.

Open Access to Research: Independent Advice – 2018
68 pages; PDF. “Independent advice from Professor Adam Tickell on open access to research publications. “

Filed under: Data Files, Funding, Management and Leadership, News, Open Access, Reports