7.1 'The Road to Data Sharing is Paved with Good Intentions': Looking at UK Research Data Policies

In 2011 the University of Edinburgh became the first UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) to adopt a research data policy. As of late 2015, 20 per cent of UK HEIs now have a policy. Whereas recommendations exist on what should go into a policy, there is no analysis on what is going in policies.

This paper compared the content of policies to see if a standard form and language is emerging.The paper will show the adoption of two approaches. The first is a ‘general principles’ approach. This policy is short, strong on the normative values for data re-use and preservation and general goals, but weak on policy detail and enforcement mechanisms. The other approach is a formal ‘legalistic’ style; it is longer, specific in requirements, strong on definitions but not necessarily clear in direction or easy for researchers to work with.

Policies are tested for type of university (research intensive vs non-research intensive) and age (university cohort). They are compared across date of publication and if mention of institutional support is made. The paper looks at a requirement to write a data management plan and to whom the policy applies. Comparisons are also made on statements on ownership, retention and research ethics, and requirements on accessibility, open data, and costing data management. The paper also looks to see if the policy is subject to review.

The results of this research fed into London School of Economics and Political Science’s own draft research data policy and a summary of policies for the Digital Curation Center’s website.

Data underpinning this paper is available under a CC-BY license through the UK Data Service.

Laurence Horton is Data Librarian at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he is responsible for providing the School’s Research Data Management support. He previously worked at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences setting up CESSDA Training in RDM and digital preservation. He also worked at the UK Data Archive on a Jisc funded Research Data Management project and in acquisitions and preparation of datasets for re-use.