The Public Domain of Digital Research Data

OECD Follow-up Group on Issues of Access to Publicly Funded Research Data

I. Start Document

1. ACCESS TO PUBLICLY FINANCED RESEARCH

1.1. Principles on Access
The third CSTP/OECD Global Research Village Conference (GRV III, Amsterdam 2000) addressed policy implications of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the global science system. The Conference discussed issues of Access to publicly financed research related to ICT as for instance Access to Network Infrastructures, Virtual Libraries, Electronic Publishing, Virtual Laboratories, Intellectual Property and Data Resources.
Following the Conference Recommendations (see DSTI/STP (2001) 12), the CSTP at its meeting of 13/14 March 2001 agreed to the establishment of a Working Group to draw up commonly agreed principles to guide Access to publicly financed research. As a result of preparatory consultations and studies the GRV III Steering Group acting as provisional Working Group now proposes to focus the activities on Access to and Sharing of Research Data from Public Funding.

1.2. Focus on research data
Access to and Sharing of Research Data from Public Funding was chosen as the most appropriate focus for the activities of the Working Group. Use of ICT has an enormous impact on the ways in which the data supply (the collection, processing, exploitation, distribution and archiving of research data) of the science system is organised. As new opportunities for better and more extensive use of research data arise, access to the data is becoming a critical factor in determining the productivity and the quality of research. The experts and policy makers consulted felt that the realisation of this enhanced potential of data supply requires additional international consensus on conditions of Access. Commonly agreed principles to guide Access will be of help in the development of additional international co-ordination and co-operation.

2. WORKING GROUP

2.1. Tasks
In order to deliver an adequate set of Principles, the provisional Working Group has set itself the task of analysing the current situation, considering future trends and advising a more co-ordinated policy action within and between OECD countries.
The Working Group will:
- report on selected current practices of Access to and Sharing of Research Data from Public Funding and their underlying principles on the basis of case studies,
- report on effects of selected current data sharing practices on the quality of research and the progress of science,
- suggest principles for making policy on data sharing and study effects of data-sharing on the quality of research and the progress of science.

2.2. Time table
The activities of the Working group will take place between October 2001 and July 2002.
The bulk of the activities of the Working group will be conducted by e-mail and tele-conferencing supported by the secretariat to be located in San Diego.
The Working Group will meet in person
- at a starting session on October 17 2001 in Paris
- in June 2002 in Paris to review the work and finalise the Report

An international workshop/expert meeting is planned to be held in Spring 2002 in Europe. Commitment and sponsorship from the European Commission/ and European Science will be sought. Meetings will be organised to coincide as much as possible witch that of the GRIV Steering Group.

The Report will be published in September 2002 to be presented at the fourth Global Research Village Conference to be held in Poland (October 10-11 2002).
The Report, or parts of it, will be presented also at the 18th CODATA Conference to be held in Montreal between 29 September and 4 October 2002 and
at the Society for Social Studies of Science Conference in November 2002.
Other platforms to present the Report are being considered.

2.2. Membership
The international working group is to be composed of experts and policy makers suggested by the OECD/CSTP delegates. During the summer of 2001, experts from The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, the United States and the European Science Foundation (ESF) have led the preparations.
Peter Arzberger (executive director of the US National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure) is prepared to chair the Working Group that in its definitive composition (to be decided on before November 2001) will include CSTP delegates and experts from Australia, Denmark, Poland, The Netherlands, The United States, ESF and CODATA. Additional participation (including GRV Steering Group members Finland and Portugal) will be sought. The Working Group will operate as a subgroup of the Steering Group of the GRV IV to be held in Poland in 2002.

2.3. Addressed actors
The Working Group will report to the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The policy recommendations will be directed at governments, research funding organisations and research institutes, in that order.
The outcome of this report accompanying research projects will also be presented to the National Science Foundation and the European Science Foundation.

3. THE POLICY CONTEXT

3.1. Data driven research
As scientific research is becoming increasingly 'data driven', data supply (the collection, processing, exploitation, distribution and archiving of research data) requires more, attention from governments, policy makers and scientists.
Traditionally, expenditure for data supply in research was all too often considered a non-recurring cost linked to a limited, specific research project. Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has spectacularly widened the range of possible research uses for the same data supply. The same expensive data sets from census as well as atmospheric surveys can be used over and again by many different researchers at practically no extra cost. More and better results can now be achieved by many different researchers using the same data. This development is bringing the issues of Access to data to the forefront of the science policy debate.

3.2. Data infrastructure
Use of ICT has brought a shift in the set-up and management of research that affects research economics: from incidental research cost, expenditure in data supply is developing into investment in a permanent, international multipurpose research infrastructure . Responsibility for the global distributed research data supply is on its way to become one of the most important issues of the science policy of the 21st century. Well balanced international arrangements to guarantee access to this data-infrastructure will become a cornerstone of science policy (as is the case with the EU Data Grid, Global Change research or the Global Biodiversity Information Facility)

3.3. Public funding
The implications of the above trends for access to and sharing of research data have been the subject of intensive discussion among scientists, research funding organisations and some debate on the governmental level in the OECD countries . Governments have taken legislative action (for non scientific purposes such as E-Commerce as well as security considerations) that will affect access and sharing in research . Specific attention to research aspects does not yet figure prominently on the agenda of governments.
The OECD countries spend more than $ 500 billion on R&D each year. Looking at the research budget from the perspective of 'data driven' research, a fast growing part of this expenditure (educated guesses run from 50% to 80%) should be accounted for as cost for data supply (including salaries, instruments etc.). The data supply used for research purposes is predominantly publicly funded . Considering the scientific and economic interests at stake, more specific and systematic policy attention from governments will be required.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS: RELEVANCE FOR SCIENCE POLICY,
RESEARCH QUALITY AND RESEARCH MANAGENENT

4.1. Policy recommendations
To get an optimum return on the investment in data, governments, public research funding organisations, industry and researchers should agree on additional policies concerning access to and sharing of this emerging global data infrastructure. These policies should entail a substantial increase in global co-ordination and co-operation in the science system. The Working Group will make recommendations on additional policies on access and data sharing.
The recommendations will focus on principles that could be used as a point of departure for policy making. In formulating these principles, the Working Group will take into account current good research practices as well as existing normative (legal, ethical, economic) values.

4.2. Effects of data-sharing on the quality of the research process
Multiple access and sharing of data will affect not only research economics and research management, but also the research process itself. Clear benefits to sharing of data and their extended use are evident and are being realised in certain disciplines now. However, in absence of good policy, there may be some deleterious effects. For example co-operation, co-ordination, setting of priorities, development of common standards and interoperability may have a homogenising effect. Diminishing diversity of data types could diminish the free flow of ideas and knowledge indispensable for the progress of science. The Working Group will commission research on the impact of data sharing on diversity in research. In its recommendations the Working Group will consider various effects on research of increased sharing of data sets.

4.3. Flexible regulation and feasible compliance
Common principles should structure practical guidelines on access and sharing of data within the regulatory framework of scientific research. It will be impossible to cover a field as large and heterogeneous as scientific research, spread over many different nations and institutions, with one uniform set of rules. The general principles will only make sense when implemented in various flexible ways in specific regulation according to the characteristics of the field of research, the institutional context and the relevant (national) regulation and legislation (on constitutional law, intellectual property, privacy protection, national security ).
Making rules is one thing, compliance with them in everyday research life can be quite another. In its recommendations, the Working Group will take into account the feasibility of compliance to more general and more detailed regulation.