Umeå University has produced a policy that describes responsibilities and provides guidance on how research data is to be managed and preserved before, during and after a research project. Through this policy, Umeå University accepts the recommendation of the Swedish Research Council regarding the management and accessibility of research data.
Scholarly publication is changing and scientific research articles are being made openly accessible through Open Access. The Swedish Government, funding bodies and large publishers recommend or request that research data is made accessible as far as legislation allows. One objective in the recent research bills 2016/17:50 and 2020/21:60 is that a transition to open access to research results – including research data – should be fully implemented by 2026.
"To Umeå University, this policy is a part of that transition to open access to research publications and research data. Research data underlying scientific publications must be readily accessible for peer review, journals and publishers and must be made accessible according to the Swedish Research Council's recommendations. The aim of the policy is to guide researchers in how to manage and preserve research data," says Thomas Kieselbach, research coordinator at the Umeå University Library.
Through the Research Data Policy, Umeå University accepts the Swedish Research Council's recommendations stating that research data should be managed in accordance with the international FAIR principles for scientific data management. The FAIR principles mean that research data must be managed in a way that makes them findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Intellectual property rights are not included in this context.
"The policy does not affect intellectual property rights. Rights to inventions, copyrighted work or other intellectual property rights are not affected. The policy also follows the principles of good research practice," says Thomas Kieselbach.
The policy uses the Swedish Research Council's definition of research data: "Research data is digital information collected in order to be analysed for scientific purposes. Examples of such research data include results from experiments and measurements, observations from field work, statistics, questionnaire responses, interviews and images. Physical objects such as scientific and archaeological collections, physical art works or biobanks are not regarded per se as research data; however, digital information about such objects is to be regarded as research data".
Research Data Policy
For more information, please contact:
Thomas Kieselbach
Chatarina Larson