The development of open research data repositories in Poland
Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw (ICM) has developed three data repositories open for researchers from various research fields and countries.
Services were created as part of the project "Disciplinary Open Research Data Repositories" that was aimed at enhancing access to academic resources by making them available in dedicated research data repositories allowing for open data sharing (more about the project: https://drodb.icm.edu.pl/english/). The project was run by two units of the University of Warsaw (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling and Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies) in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Polish Academy of Sciences and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
Repository for Open Data RepOD is a general-purpose repository for open research data, offering scholars the possibility to deposit their datasets. The repository's purpose is to make available in the Internet research data, such as tables, photographs, audiovisual material, and any other types of data created, collected, or annotated for academic research. A new service replaced a previous version that had been launched in 2015.
Macromolecular Xtallography Raw Data Repository MX-RDR is a domain-specific digital repository of crystallographic open research data. It was designed to archive and provide access to raw diffraction data collected for macromolecular crystals. It includes tools for creating metadata for crystallographic datasets by combining information extracted directly from diffraction images and obtained from a PDB deposit and/or user input.
Social Data Repository RDS is a domain-specific digital repository of social data. The repository's purpose is to make qualitative and quantitative social data, consisting of data accompanied by technical and/or methodological documentation, available on the Internet.
Researchers can deposit, share and publish their datasets openly, in line with FAIR principles. It is possible to describe datasets with metadata, include structured funding information, provide a link to the connected publications and/or datasets, select one of the Creative Commons licences and attribute it to an individual file. Thanks to the OAI-PMH server and numerous APIs, the repository allows for the automation of extensive exchange of its resources with external services.
Repositories are based on a modified version of Dataverse (available at GitHub: https://github.com/CeON/dataverse) – an open-source research data repository software.
- Repository for Open Data RepOD: https://www.re3data.org/repository/r3d100011903
- Macromolecular Xtallography Raw Data Repository MX-RDR: https://www.re3data.org/repository/r3d100013569
- Social Data Repository RDS: https://www.re3data.org/repository/r3d100013574
The number of datasets deposited and shared in all three repositories is growing. Over 600 datasets were made available as part of the "Disciplinary Open Research Data Repositories" project, which ended in October 2021. New datasets are deposited by individual users and researchers affiliated with institutions that have agreed to cooperate with the University of Warsaw in order to set up an institutional collection in the Repository for Open Data. Currently, over 15 institutions have chosen this solution for sharing data collected during research and making them FAIR.
Research data sharing has gained increasing interest and attention in Poland over the past few years. In 2019 the National Science Centre announced its plans to introduce open science policy and published requirements for proper data management that included completing a data management plan (DMP). In the following year, the Open Access policy was adopted; it covers scientific publications as well as research data (https://www.ncn.gov.pl/en/finansowanie-nauki/otwarta-nauka).
As a result, Polish scientific institutions have adopted their own policies or guidelines and have set up various forms of support for researchers completing DMPs and sharing research data. Institutional support for research data management was also discussed during the second part of the OpenAIRE National Open Access Workshop in November 2020 (see the blogpost below).
Research Data Management: OpenAIRE National Workshop in Poland (2nd part)
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