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Module 2: Translating Institutional Data and Software Policy to Strategy

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The training curriculum is currently undergoing final revisions and quality checks. All materials will be released shortly. Until the official release, please refrain from using, distributing, or implementing any part of these resources.

Learning Objectives

  • Learning Objective 1 (LO1): Recognise the importance of institutional policies such as data and software policy.
  • Learning Objective 2 (LO2): Translate institutional policies into actionable data management strategies.

Total Module Duration

2 hours

Learning Objective 1

LO1: Recognise the importance of institutional policies such as data and software policy.

Learning Activities

  • Introduction slides/lecture (25 mins): Why are institutional policies like data and software policies important? What topics do they include, and what considerations guide their creation? What are some examples of institutional data and software policies? (Resources 1–3 contain examples from Dutch and Australian contexts).
  • Discovery Activity (30 mins): Look up what the data policy says about the data ownership in your institution. Who owns research data collected by researchers as part of their research project? Does it vary depending on the type of project? Share your findings with the rest of the group. If representing different institutions, are your institutional policies similar or different?
  • Group Activity (35 mins): In groups, suggest and define the key responsibilities of various stakeholders (for example legal and IT personnel) in institutional policy as it relates to RDM and Open Science. Report the discussion back to the larger group.

Materials to Prepare

  • Slide presentation on institutional policies.
  • Discovery and Group Activity on content of policies and key responsibilities of stakeholders.

Instructor Notes

Slides/lecture:

  • Help the learners to understand the role and importance of the institutional policies, such as data and software policies in highlighting good research data and software management practices and the different roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders within an institute to implement/facilitate these practices. Provide them with the examples of the institutional policies. Help learners to understand the impact of the institutional policies with the help of the background material (Resources 1–3).
  • It is important to explain how the national open science policy influences the positions and the implementation of strategies regarding open science in different research and higher education institutions. A national open science policy, effectively implemented in research institutions and universities, promotes equal access to knowledge, stimulates innovation and scientific collaboration, and optimises the impact of publicly funded research.

Activities:

  • Advise the learners to familiarise themselves with the policies at their own institution and how they influence their every day processes and activities.
  • Help learners to think about how to develop and/or implement institutional policies and how the policies can influence or highlight best practice on research practices. The instructor can facilitate a discussion around what role Data Stewards have in data and software management such as creating awareness on good research management practices, advising on data management plans, organising training, connecting researchers to legal, privacy, and so on. The role will vary depending on the context so it is good to explore this together with the learners.

Resources

  1. Section: V - LEGISLATION AND POLICY | Essentials 4 Data Support (English) - Public | DANS. https://danstraining.moodlecloud.com/course/section.php?id=86.
    In this course the impact of institutional policies is explained, also examples of different policies, in section V, 'Data policy'. Examples of institutional policies in two Dutch national institutions are provided.
  2. Australian Research Data Commons. Institutional Research Data Management Policies and Procedures. Zenodo, 16 Dec. 2021. DOI.org (Datacite), https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.5784765.
    This resource looks at why have a research data management policy or policies: - Possible approaches to constructing a research data policy suite - Examples of data management policies - Key topics to include in a research data policy suite - Checklist for a Research Data Management Policy for Australian Universities/Institutions (which could be considered as an example)
  3. Pereira, Filipa. Institutional Policies on RDM & Exercise. Zenodo, 21 June 2022. DOI.org (Datacite), https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.6674439.
    This resource includes a slide presentation that can be used as a material for the presentation or group activity. It is a part of the ELIXIR data stewardship training program for life sciences. It provides a discussion of important elements of a data management policy.

Learning Objective 2

LO2: Translate institutional policies into actionable data management strategies.

Learning Activities

  • Reading (background) + discussion activity (30 mins): Learners should be asked to read 'Building a Culture of Data Sharing' (Resource 1) in preparation for this module.
    In the session, discuss the key elements of the implementation of data management. Summarise the key takeaways of this article with regards to implementation of institutional policies.

Materials to Prepare

  • Nothing.

Instructor Notes

Discussion activity:

  • The reading 'Building a Culture of Data Sharing' (Resource 1) can be shared with learners in advance of the session. A discussion activity which summarises the reading in the live session can be used to briefly recap the contents of the article.
  • The article summarises the key points for policy design which the instructor can use to summarise the reading/discussion. The instructor can take further points into consideration on how policies need to be supported by relevant infrastructures (e.g. Resource 2, Table 2, Institutional instruments to support open research data sharing and reuse, as identified in the literature).
  • Ask the learners to discuss the key elements of the institutional policy implementation with each other. If there is time, ask learners to reflect on what is required in terms of infrastructure and support structures to implement policies.

Resources

Input for discussion activity:

  1. Neylon, Cameron. Building a Culture of Data Sharing: Policy Design and Implementation for Research Data Management in Development Research. Research Ideas and Outcomes, vol. 3, Oct. 2017, p. e21773. riojournal.com, https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e21773.
    Article about opportunities and challenges of implementing open research strategies and policies. Background information about the possibilities and bottlenecks when implementing the OS and RDM policies in institutions and projects. Recognising the importance of internal stakeholders as an audience for policy design and internal culture and practice change is an important part of implementation.
  2. Van Gend, T., & Zuiderwijk, A. (2023). Open research data: A case study into institutional and infrastructural arrangements to stimulate open research data sharing and reuse. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 55(3), 782--797. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221101200.
    This paper provides a case study about the combination of institutional and infrastructure arrangements positively impact research data sharing and reuse. Data stewards can use it as a resource regarding different instruments are available to assistance researchers.