10.1 From Open Access to Open Data: Collaborative Work in the University Libraries of Catalonia

Since 2014 the university libraries of Catalonia have been working with the Libraries and Documentation Area of the University Services Consortium of Catalonia (CSUC) to support research through a working group (GTSR). The group focuses on open access, institutional and disciplinary repositories, ORCID and the Catalan Research Portal, and since 2015 it has given special priority to research data management (RDM). The aim is to help researchers with projects in the Horizon 2020 programme to meet the requirements of the Open Research Data Pilot, because the amount of European funds obtained for university projects is significant and shows a positive trend.

The starting point for work on RDM was the completion of a specific course for library staff and a prospective survey sent to researchers from the participating universities with H2020-funded projects. The survey confirmed the lack of knowledge of data management among researchers and the GTSR has therefore focused in the last year on three main areas: providing support for the drafting of data management plans (DMPs), making recommendations on data repositories, and drafting a framework agreement for a policy on open access to research data.

For the support in the drafting of DMPs, we developed a guide on what a DMP should include according to the guidelines of the H2020 framework programme, which includes the FAIR principles and is accompanied by selected examples from several real DMPs. This guide is available in text format and is included in the online tool “Research Data Management Plan” (www.dmp.csuc.cat), an adaptation of the DMPOnline tool of the Digital Curation Centre.

Pending evaluation of the possibility of creating a consortial data repository, we have created recommendations to support researchers in selecting a repository for their research data. The document provides sources for consulting disciplinary repositories (directories, publishers’ recommendations, etc.) and information on multidisciplinary repositories (a comparative table showing the type of data allowed, the file size, the associated licenses, the cost of depositing, etc.)

Finally, we developed a framework agreement for open access to research data supported by the vice-rectors for Research of the Universities of Catalonia, who have agreed to adopt policies at their universities within a year.

The RDM support services at each university have begun to offer advice on developing a DMP, selecting a subject or institutional repository, copyright, licences and citing data. The services also offer training and carry out activities aimed at raising awareness among the academic community. All these actions are now being monitored.