6.7. Data reuse
Enabling and supporting the reuse of data is one of the core aims of the FAIR principles, and the preceding chapters looked at the reusability of data from many angles, mostly in regard to workflows and practices from a researcher's point of view. This chapter looks at measures that institutions can implement to support and promote the reuse of data.
Facilitate data sharing agreements
When multiple parties are involved in a research project, it is good practice to have a data sharing agreement in place. Data sharing agreements define the purpose of data sharing, govern what happens to data at each stage of the research process, specify the standards used, and help all parties involved to be clear about their roles and responsibilities. A data sharing agreement can either be set up as a separate document, or data sharing clauses can form part of a broader contract or collaboration agreement.
Before data are shared, involved parties should talk to each other to discuss data sharing issues and come to a joint agreement, which is then documented in a data sharing agreement. The process for creating data sharing agreements may vary from country to country and from institution to institution. It is also possible that other terminology is in use, such as ‛information sharing agreement' rather than data sharing agreement.
A data sharing agreement:
establishes roles and responsibilities;
specifies the purpose of the data sharing;
governs what happens to the data at each stage of the research process; and
establishes common standards.
Data sharing agreements are designed to help justify data sharing and demonstrate that all relevant compliance aspects have been considered and documented. A data sharing agreement provides a common framework that also helps meet legal requirements, e.g. for data protection principles (15).
Enhancing discoverability
Researchers following the FAIR data principles will have documented their data with rich metadata. To make datasets findable, these metadata need to be as widely available as possible. While the original repository in which the data are hosted will provide search functions, metadata should also be indexed in other discovery portals. Descriptive metadata can be indexed (made findable) by general search engines. A more targeted search across multiple repositories is made possible by dedicated dataset search engines like Google DataSet Search, the Data Citation Index of Web of Science, or the Open Source-based service, BASE. This does not happen automatically, but requires conscious effort by the repository. Search engines rely on the mapping of metadata into their underlying metadata schemas, which are schema.org for Google and a custom Data Citation Index schema for Web of Science. BASE curates sources that provide information via OAI-PMH.
Another way of enhancing the discoverability of datasets is by linking the dataset as widely as possible to other information resources. Examples include keywords, links to research articles via DOIs, and authors via ORCIDs. A more advanced level involves the interlinking of datasets or into the linked data world of the semantic web.
Promotion of data reuse
An institutional aim should be to create a virtuous cycle in which researchers become part of communities of practice who consider data reuse and interlinking of various datasets to be an integral part of their research process. Activities supporting this aim include:
showcasing examples of successful reuse of datasets in blogs and social media;
organising events like hackathons focused on existing datasets;
promoting hands-on teaching with existing datasets on all levels and in all disciplines; and
creating experimental and collaborative spaces like Data Labs (Open a Glam Lab offers advice how to approach this task).
Learn more:
Lesson plan 10: Finding and reusing data
(15) For more detail, see, for example, the data sharing agreement framework template of the University of Wageningen: https://www.wur.nl/web/file?uuid=b8299644-97b7-4d8f-959e-25f8fce9fb77&owner=497277b7-cdf0-4852-b124-6b45db364d72&contentid=546669
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