Research data management refers to the handling of research data (collection, organisation, storage, and documentation) during and after a research activity. Good data management helps ensure that researchers share their data in a FAIR way (findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable). Research organisations increasingly require their researchers to develop a data management plan to ensure that all aspects are considered from the start of an activity on.
Research funders, research organisations, reviewers, and individual researchers all have different needs from research data management. Varying organisational requirements can be confusing for researchers who work with different organisations, who change their home institution, or who work together with researchers from other organisations where different rules apply. International alignment of data management policies and practices supports researchers in their efforts and makes data management a useful part of the research process.
Science Europe’s Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management offers targeted guidance for organisations, disciplines, and individual researchers. Originally released in 2019 and following its successful uptake by many organisations, it was updated in January 2021 to include guidance to support the evaluation of data management plans (DMPs).
The guide presents core requirements for DMPs and an evaluation rubric, as well as criteria for the selection of trustworthy repositories. This provides research organisations and communities with a common basis to develop data management practices and policies from. Researchers will also find guidance on how to comply with organisational requirements.
The different elements of the guide should be considered minimum requirement that can be amended to accommodate institutional or disciplinary policies and practices. Organisations and disciplines can use the following templates (in .docx and .odt formats) to adapt the basic framework to their needs:
RDM Guidance for Organisations
RDM Guidance for Researchers
RDM Guidance for Reviewers
Several online tools have been created to support researchers creating their own DMPs or checking the level of FAIRness of their DMPs. A number of these have integrated a template based on the Science Europe guidance as part of their service offer:
Developed by experts from Science Europe Member Organisations, this guide aims to align research data management (RDM) requirements across research organisations. Originally released in 2019, it was updated in January 2021 to include guidance to support the evaluation of data management plans (DMPs).
Recommendations from the Practical Guide are being taken up all around the world. The guide has also been translated by several organisations to support their researchers in their national language. The following versions are currently available:
FAIRsFAIR has developed the FAIRAware tool to help researchers make their data more FAIR. They have subsequently integrated additional guidance from the tool into the existing Science Europe DMP guidance:
Does your organisation want to develop requirements for data management plans (DMPs) or update existing ones?
Take a look at our latest publication to find out how to do so in three steps.
Research organisations and funders increasingly ask researchers to create Data Management Plans for their work and proposals. A lack of standardisation means that these can be time-consuming to create and difficult to compare and evaluate. Science Europe presents a framework for the creation of domain-specific protocols that can be used as standardised templates, reducing the administrative burden on both researchers, research organisations, and funders.
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2023 proved to be another landmark year for Science Europe: building on the achievements of the previous year and setting the direction for new approaches in vital areas of research policy.
On the occasion of the International Open Access Week 2022 (OA Week 2022) from 24 - 30 October Science Europe reaffirms Open Science as a cross-cutting priority and puts a spotlight on the many activities, initiatives and events carried out in the past months.
Ahead of discussions on 4 July in the European Parliament, Science Europe highlights its concerns regarding the potential impact of the Digital Services Act on the research and education sectors and the legal uncertainty that it is likely to create.
Research organisations, libraries, repositories, and university networks call for the the exclusion of not-for-profit repositories, digital archives, and libraries from the obligations of the Digital Services Act.
FAIRsFAIR has released additional guidance on making Data Management Plans FAIR, based on the January 2021 Science Europe DMP guidance.
We are pleased to announce that Science Europe is now issuing Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for its publications and depositing its publications on the Zenodo platform.
On 27 January 2021, Science Europe presented the second, extended version of its Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management during a webinar with more than 260 participants.
As it was unfortunately not possible to address all questions participants asked during the launch event, this document presents the answers to the questions asked to both Science Europe and the webinar speakers.
The interoperability and sustainability of research data are an indispensable element of the shift towards an Open Science system. At this event, Science Europe presented strategic guidance for research performers, funders, and data infrastructures to help ensure long-term preservation and accessibility of research data.
This Practical Guide provides guidance to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of research data. Three complementary maturity matrices provide funders, performers, and data infrastructures with a way to create a common understanding of the approaches needed.
The Science Europe General Assembly adopted the creation of a new working group on Open Science (WG OS) to develop a comprehensive approach towards the topic. WG OS will provide a platform to bring together the Open Science aspects embedded in all activities of Science Europe. It will also broaden the scope of our work in the area, to fulfill the objectives described in the new Science Europe Strategy and Multi-annual Action Plan.