New Report: Guidance on Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research

From a White House Blog Post by: Christopher Steven Marcum, Assistant Director for Open Science and Data Policy & Ryan Donohue, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor:

The value of sharing Federally funded data as a public asset – with direct benefit to the health and well-being of the American public – became clear during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Encouraged by Federal agencies, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, researchers rapidly shared their COVID-19 data through a wide variety of free, online resources. Public access to COVID-19 data accelerated discoveries and hastened the translation of research into prevention strategies, treatments, vaccines, and standards of care that ultimately saved lives, despite the dire and ongoing toll of the pandemic.  One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic for data sharing is that public access policies can benefit all of America.

To help ensure that access is shared equitably by all Americans, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has been working for nearly a decade to ensure that Federal agencies with research and development budgets of at least $100 million develop plans to deposit Federally funded data into online digital repositories.

To continue this effort, today OSTP is releasing the report Guidance on Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research. This guidance contains clearly defined desirable characteristics for two classes of online research data repositories: a general class appropriate for all types of Federally funded data—including free and easy access—and a specific class that has special considerations for the sharing of human data, including additional data security and privacy considerations. Federal agencies can use this guidance to provide more consistent information to their research communities about sharing Federally funded data with the public.

Learn More, Read the Complete Report

Direct to Complete Blog Post

Filed under: Data Files, Funding, News, Open Access