Research data
Research data – data collected, observed, or produced as material for analysis in scientific research (e.g. numerical data, text documents, questionnaires, audio and video recordings, photographs). There are five main types of data:
- observational data, e.g. survey results, sensor readings, telemetry data, laboratory observations,
- experimental data, e.g. gene sequences, chromatograms, magnetic field readings, spectroscopy,
- simulation data, e.g. climate and economic models, engineering systems),
- derived/compiled data, e.g. text mining, bibliometric data, databases, 3D models,
- reference or canonical data, e.g. databases with gene sequences, census data, GUS data, chemical structures.
Research data is also divided into:
- raw data – obtained directly as a result of using a research tool (as a result of empirical research) in various scientific undertakings or collected for the needs of specific projects, not analyzed;
- data that has been processed.
Recommendations of European institutions::
Commission Recommendation (UE) 2018/790 z of 25 April 2018 on on access to and protection of scientific information
According to these recommendations, research results that come from publicly funded research should comply with the FAIR principles. This acronym means data:
- Findable,
- Accessible,
- Interoperable,
- Reusable.
More information about the FAIR rules can be found on the website GO FAIR.
Please note! Fulfilling the FAIR rules does not mean making the data accessible. Before making the data accessible, consider issues related to the protection of personal data, trade secrets, national security, commercialization, legitimate commercial interests, or intellectual property rights owned by third parties. According to the basic principle of sharing research data, they should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.
On June 20, 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information, obliging Member States to implement policies for open access to publicly funded research data.
Following the recommendations of European institutions, research funding agencies increasingly require scientists to submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) at the stage of submitting and evaluating grant applications.
At the end of February 2021, the European Commission published a sample agreement of the ogramu Horizon Europe Program, containing provisions on open sharing of research data.
In terms of research data, the agreement obliges grant recipients to:
- preparation and ongoing updating of research data management plans,
- deposit data in open repositories as soon as possible under the terms of CC BY or CC0 or equivalent licenses, in line with the principle of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”, and if the competition conditions require the use of an associated repository under the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), this should also be taken into account,
- sharing metadata under the CC0 license or equivalent, in accordance with the FAIR rules, and containing information about the author or authors, title, date and place of making the data available, the source of funding along with the name, acronym, and number of the grant, the license used, permanent identifiers.
In September 2018, the National Science Center (NCN) became one of the signatories of the COAlition S. The aim of the Plan S, adopted by the coalition partners, is to introduce open access to publications and research results financed from public funds.
In 2019, the National Science Center obliged authors of applications for funding research projects to attach a research data management plan to their applications. More on the requirements of the National Science Center on the website:
https://www.ncn.gov.pl/finansowanie-nauki/informacje-dla-wnioskodawcow
NCN guidelines for applicants to supplement the DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN in the research project:
In May 2020, NCN adopted the open access policy. The content of this document was based on the assumptions of Plan S. The policy contains information on publication paths that meet the criteria of compliance with Plan S, on the eligibility of costs, and other guidelines, including those concerning research data:
- data should be made available in an open repository, where possible, in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons license (preferably Public Domain CC0),
- metadata should follow the guidelines given by OpenAIRE, including an annotation about financing from the project funds (National Science Center, project number),
- data citation standards should be consistent with Declaration of Data Citation Principles by FORCE 11 and TOP Guidelines (example: author(s), year, data title, repository, version, permanent ID).
Examples of general open research data repositories:
Registry of research data repositories:
We also recommend to take a look at the publication prepared by Krzysztof Siewicz and Nikodem Rycko Prawne aspekty otwierania danych badawczych – poradnik [Legal aspects of opening research data – guide.] .