Information science for biology

Who takes charge for research data?

NSB-05-40, Long-Lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century
Link to summary and full text

The ‘Long-Lived Data Collections’ report, produced by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2005, outlines the important issues, rights and responsibilities that need to be taken into account is the long-term preservation of important research data is to be ensured.

A few questions that come to mind on reading the report are below.

• Who pays?
• What is the long-term strategy?
• What needs investment?
• How can diverse community needs be met?
• Which data get supported for the long-term?
• Who decides what happens to data?
• How are community-proxies evaluated?
• Who is responsible for data?
• Do research plans need data plans?
• How can the community be educated on data issues?
• How can data experts be trained?
• How does data policy compliment other national research policies?