Sorbonne declaration on research data rights [Originally published in the LERU website in January/2020]

The opening of research data is one of the practices of the open science modus operandi that aims to maximize the reproducibility of research methods and results. Open data contributes at the same time to research transparency and reuse of data and methods, promoting collaboration and return on investments. In this sense, the priority lines of action of the SciELO Program¹ foresee for the coming years to realign the program, indexed journals, and the research it communicates. However, the successfulness of journals in the fast and efficient adoption of open science will depend on other research bodies and actors – funding agencies, universities and research institutions, scientific societies, research groups, and researchers. The countries of the SciELO Network are progressively promoting the adoption of open science, particularly the sharing of research data. In November 2019, the Network of Scientific Data Repositories of the State of São Paulo, formed by eight universities and research institutions, was launched at FAPESP.^2,3 It is a movement that is progressively being globalized. In January 2020, leaders of eight university networks from Africa, Australia, Japan, the United States, Europe, and Japan gathered at the International Research Data Rights Summit at Sorbonne Université, and on the 27th they signed the Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights⁴, which is reproduced in this post in the original English version.

Sorbonne declaration on research data rights

Based on the following principles:

• Knowledge derived from research benefits society.
• The value of research data lies on its integrity, upon which the public trust in new knowledge is founded.
• Providing access to and openly sharing data enable the development of new knowledge, accelerates discoveries for the benefit of society and economic development.
• Research data should, as much as possible be shared openly and reused, without compromising national security, institutional autonomy, privacy, indigenous rights and the protection of intellectual property.
• The academic community is integral to identifying the complex conditions for sharing and reuse.

We, research university networks, commit to:

• Encouraging our universities and their researchers to share data as much as possible.
• Supporting our universities and their researchers in making their data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR).
• Promoting data curation and sharing and the development of data management plans as a standard part of the research process.
• Engaging institutions in the development of appropriate recognition for researchers who make their data FAIR and share it with appropriate open data licenses.
• Advocating that these principles be integrated into institutional research data policies.
• Encouraging our universities in setting up training and skills development programs that create an environment to promote open research data management.

We call on the global scholarly and research community to join us in:

• Building an environment that supports the global sharing of research data, based on the aforementioned principles.
• Building interoperable instruments and appropriate data repositories to share research data as much as possible.
• Ensuring that peer-reviewed publications are supported by the necessary FAIR data sets as research findings must be accessible, verifiable and replicable.

We ask, in order to deliver on these commitments, that:

• Funding agencies consider the management of research data as fully eligible activity for funding and increase research funding accordingly to reflect the full cost of making research data available.
• National governments provide resources to enable data curation and sharing activities to be developed and sustained
• National jurisdictions develop consistent policies and guidance that embody the aforementioned principles and provide an accurate framework to support their implementation by universities and research institutions.
• Such laws, policies and guidance avoid a “lock-in” effect from commercial platforms and data services to ensure the openness and the reusability of research data.

The signatories

Association of American Universities
African Research Universities Alliance
Coordination of French Research-Intensive Universities
German U15
League of European Research Universities
Research University 11
Russell Group
The Group of Eight
U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities

Notes

1. SciELO – Priority lines of action 2019-2023 [online]. SciELO 20 Years. 2018 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: https://www.scielo20.org/redescielo/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/Líneas-prioritaris-de-acción-2019-2023_en.pdf

2. Lançamento da Rede de Repositórios de Dados Científicos do Estado de São Paulo [online]. FAPESP. 2019 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: http://www.fapesp.br/13660

3. ZIEGLER, M.F. FAPESP lança Rede de Repositórios de Dados Científicos do Estado de São Paulo [online]. Agência FAPESP. 2019 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: http://agencia.fapesp.br/fapesp-lanca-rede-de-repositorios-de-dados-cientificos-do-estado-de-sao-paulo/32251/

4. Data Summit in Paris [online]. LERU. 2020 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: https://www.leru.org/news/data-summit-in-paris

References

Data Summit in Paris [online]. LERU. 2020 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: https://www.leru.org/news/data-summit-in-paris

Lançamento da Rede de Repositórios de Dados Científicos do Estado de São Paulo [online]. FAPESP. 2019 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: http://www.fapesp.br/13660

SciELO – Priority lines of action 2019-2023 [online]. SciELO 20 Years. 2018 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: https://www.scielo20.org/redescielo/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/Líneas-prioritaris-de-acción-2019-2023_en.pdf

ZIEGLER, M.F. FAPESP lança Rede de Repositórios de Dados Científicos do Estado de São Paulo [online]. Agência FAPESP. 2019 [viewed 13 February 2020]. Available from: http://agencia.fapesp.br/fapesp-lanca-rede-de-repositorios-de-dados-cientificos-do-estado-de-sao-paulo/32251/