Many funders and publishers now require data to be made openly available for reuse, supporting the open data movement and value for publicly funded research. But are all researchers aware of why they are being asked to share their data and how to do this appropriately?

The challenges around preserving open research data were highlighted in this article. The authors addressed the concerns that open research data can include a wide variety of different types of data files, some of which may only be accessible with proprietary software or software that is outdated or at risk of being outdated soon.

The move to open data, following the FAIR principles, has the potential to boost knowledge, research, collaboration, transparency and decision-making. What can researchers do to make sure that when they deposit data into a repository, it will be available for them and others in 10 or even 20 years time? Researchers should consider submitting their data to a repository, one that is suitable for their files.

A recent blog highlighted the potential problem of disappearing data repositories, with approximately 6% being shut down (most reasons are unknown, but some were listed as organization or economic failure, obsolete software/hardware or external attacks). Approximately 47% of the repositories that had shut down did not provide an alternative solution to rescue the data, and it is assumed that this data is lost. It may be that your funder or publisher decides the repository for you, but the University of Cambridge has some guidance on what to look for in a trusted repository.

Source: https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=3960

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