CoreTrustSeal

Open data and data management policies that call for the long-term storage and accessibility of data are becoming more and more commonplace in the research community. With it the need for trustworthy data repositories to store and disseminate data is growing. CoreTrustSeal, a community based and non-profit organisation, offers data repositories a core level certification based on the DSA-WDS Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements catalogue and procedures. This universal catalogue of requirements reflects the core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories. Core certification involves an uncomplicated process whereby data repositories supply evidence that they are sustainable and trustworthy. A repository first conducts an internal self-assessment, which is then reviewed by community peers. Once the self-assessment is found adequate the CoreTrustSeal board certifies the repository with a CoreTrustSeal. The Seal is valid for a period of three years. Being a certified repository has several external and internal benefits. It for instance improves the quality and transparency of internal processes, increases awareness of and compliance with established standards, builds stakeholder confidence, enhances the reputation of the repository, and demonstrates that the repository is following good practices. It is also offering a benchmark for comparison and helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a repository. In the future we foresee a larger uptake through different domains, not in the least because within the European Open Science Cloud, the FAIR principles and therefore also the certification of trustworthy digital repositories holding data is becoming increasingly important. Next to that the CoreTrustSeal requirements will most probably become a European Technical standard which can be used in procurement (under review by the European Commission)

CoreTrustSeal

Open data and data management policies that call for the long-term storage and accessibility of data are becoming more and more commonplace in the research community. With it the need for trustworthy data repositories to store and disseminate data is growing. CoreTrustSeal, a community based and non-profit organisation, offers data repositories a core level certification based on the DSA-WDS Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements catalogue and procedures. This universal catalogue of requirements reflects the core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories. Core certification involves an uncomplicated process whereby data repositories supply evidence that they are sustainable and trustworthy. A repository first conducts an internal self-assessment, which is then reviewed by community peers. Once the self-assessment is found adequate the CoreTrustSeal board certifies the repository with a CoreTrustSeal. The Seal is valid for a period of three years. Being a certified repository has several external and internal benefits. It for instance improves the quality and transparency of internal processes, increases awareness of and compliance with established standards, builds stakeholder confidence, enhances the reputation of the repository, and demonstrates that the repository is following good practices. It is also offering a benchmark for comparison and helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a repository. In the future we foresee a larger uptake through different domains, not in the least because within the European Open Science Cloud, the FAIR principles and therefore also the certification of trustworthy digital repositories holding data is becoming increasingly important. Next to that the CoreTrustSeal requirements will most probably become a European Technical standard which can be used in procurement (under review by the European Commission)

The Front Office–Back Office Model: Supporting Research Data Management in the Netherlands

High quality and timely data management and secure storage of data, both during and after completion of research, are an essential prerequisite for sharing that data. It is therefore crucial that universities and research institutions themselves formulate a clear policy on data management within their organization. For the implementation of this data management policy, high quality support for researchers and an adequate technical infrastructure are indispensable. This practice paper will present an overview of the merging federated data infrastructure in the Netherlands with its front office – back office model, as a use case of an efficient and effective national support infrastructure for researchers. We will elaborate on the stakeholders involved, on the services they offer each other, and on the benefits of this model not only for the front and back offices themselves, but also for the researchers. We will also pay attention to a number of challenges that we are facing, like the implementation of a technical infrastructure for automatic data ingest and integrating access to research data

CoreTrustSeal

Open data and data management policies that call for the long-term storage and accessibility of data are becoming more and more commonplace in the research community. With it the need for trustworthy data repositories to store and disseminate data is growing. CoreTrustSeal, a community based and non-profit organisation, offers data repositories a core level certification based on the DSA-WDS Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements catalogue and procedures. This universal catalogue of requirements reflects the core characteristics of trustworthy data repositories. Core certification involves an uncomplicated process whereby data repositories supply evidence that they are sustainable and trustworthy. A repository first conducts an internal self-assessment, which is then reviewed by community peers. Once the self-assessment is found adequate the CoreTrustSeal board certifies the repository with a CoreTrustSeal. The Seal is valid for a period of three years. Being a certified repository has several external and internal benefits. It for instance improves the quality and transparency of internal processes, increases awareness of and compliance with established standards, builds stakeholder confidence, enhances the reputation of the repository, and demonstrates that the repository is following good practices. It is also offering a benchmark for comparison and helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a repository. In the future we foresee a larger uptake through different domains, not in the least because within the European Open Science Cloud, the FAIR principles and therefore also the certification of trustworthy digital repositories holding data is becoming increasingly important. Next to that the CoreTrustSeal requirements will most probably become a European Technical standard which can be used in procurement (under review by the European Commission)

Ten Years Back, Five Years Forward: The Data Seal of Approval

If we want to share data, the long-term storage of those data in a trustworthy digital archive is an essential condition. Trust is the basis of storing and sharing data. That trust must be present in the various stakeholders involved. Certification of digital archives can make an important contribution to the confidence of these stakeholders in the digital archives.Ten years ago DANS was assigned the task of developing a Seal of Approval for digital data to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. In 2009 this Data Seal of Approval (DSA) was transferred to an international body, the DSA Board, which has managed and further developed the guidelines and the peer review process ever since.The objectives of the DSA are to safeguard data, ensure high quality and guide reliable management of data for the future without requiring implementation of new standards, regulations or heavy investments. The DSA contains 16 guidelines for applying and verifying quality aspects concerning the creation, storage, use and reuse of digital data.Based on feedback from data archives that applied for a DSA and different case studies we have gained some insight into the benefits of DSA. Still, the impact of having the Seal is not easy to measure. Seal holders usually refer to qualitative benefits in the form of increased awareness of the value of their repositories to their communities, funders and publishers.Ten years down the line we can safely state that the Data Seal of Approval has proven its added value. If we try to look five years into the future, what can we expect? There are different developments: a growing interest in DSA among European research infrastructures, the collaboration between DSA and the ISCU World Data System under the umbrella of the RDA (Research Data Alliance) and the European Commission is showing a growing interest in certification services.The success of DSA also provides the challenge to further professionalize the DSA organization in the coming years, this to enable its community to continue to grow. All in all there are promising developments for a bright future for the Data Seal of Approval

FAIR-IMPACT

In this poster we present the FAIR-IMPACT project, “Expanding FAIR solutions across EOSC”, which is funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe programme. The acronym FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The project is coordinated by DANS and supported by 27 additional partners from 11 countries. FAIR-IMPACT will build on the successful practices, policies, tools and technical specifications arising from FAIRsFAIR other H2020 projects and initiatives, and from the FAIR and other relevant Working Groups of the former European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Executive Board. The FAIR-IMPACT project is active between June 2022 and May 2025.Cascading grants will be available to support uptake of FAIR solutions and practices. The overall objective of FAIR-IMPACT is to realise a FAIR EOSC, that is an EOSC of FAIR data and services, by supporting the implementation of FAIR-enabling practices across scientific communities and research outputs at a European, national, and international level. Advancing findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (“FAIRness”) of data and other research objects are at the core of this project, which closely collaborates with the FAIRCORE4ESOC project (https://faircore4eosc.eu/ ).We will coordinate the implementation of frameworks and the alignment of FAIR data practices on metadata and persistent identifiers (PIDs) in order to achieve the wide uptake of and compliance with FAIR principles by national and European research data and metadata providers and repositories. In the poster we present our work on the implementation of the FAIR principles and practices. Among other things we aim at a coherent implementation of PIDs and more exact data citation, as services then are able to support better data quality with suitable PID solutions. A broader and more targeted use of PIDs, based on end-user needs, can support trust and risk management and requires collaboration among PID service providers and developing PID policies. Special attention will be paid to reproducibility and to sensitive data. As semantic artefacts are an important element in creating semantic interoperability, they are also regarded as digital objects with their own recommendations for FAIR implementation, as are software. Working together with the FAIRCORE4ESOC project, we can address things like kernel information profiles that are highly relevant for FAIR digital objects.The project will also focus on increasing data accessibility through enhancing interoperability on all levels, with specific steps taken to address recommendations outlined in the EOSC (The EOSC Interoperability Framework). Validation of core interoperability components through metadata mechanisms across scientific disciplines, fostering interoperability alignment with the nine European Data Spaces, and the DAMA framework (DAMA-DMBoK), i.e. the EOSC ecosystem, are of relevance.Metrics and FAIR assessment are also addressed in this project, that will extend and adapt the FAIRsFAIR data object assessment metrics and F-UJI tool to be more disciplinary-context aware and to include more discipline specific tests. The FAIR-IMPACT project will closely work with how the FAIR principles are implemented within the EOSC and how digital objects can be identified and managed

The Perceived Value of Acquiring Data Seals of Approval

The Data Seal of Approval (DSA) is one of the most widely used standards for Trusted Digital Repositories to date. Those who developed this standard have articulated seven main benefits of acquiring DSAs: 1) stakeholder confidence, 2) improvements in communication, 3) improvement in processes, 4) transparency, 5) differentiation from others, 6) awareness raising about digital preservation, and 7) less labor- and time-intensive. Little research has focused on if and how those who have acquired DSAs actually perceive these benefits. Consequently, this study examines the benefits of acquiring DSAs from the point of view of those who have them. In a series of 15 semi-structured interviews with representatives from 16 different organizations, participants described the benefits of having DSAs in their own words. Our findings suggest that participants experience all of the seven benefits that those who developed the standard promised. Additionally, our findings reflect the greater importance of some of those benefits compared to others. For example, participants mentioned the benefits of stakeholder confidence, transparency, improvement in processes and awareness raising about digital preservation more frequently than they discussed less labor- and time-intensive (e.g. it being less labor- and time-intensive to acquire DSAs than becoming certified by other standards), improvements in communication, and differentiation from others. Participants also mentioned two additional benefits of acquiring DSAs that are not explicitly listed on the DSA website that were very important to them: 1) the impact of acquiring the DSA on documentation of their workflows, and 2) assurance that they were following best practice. Implications and future directions for research are discussed

Towards a European network of FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs) - A Working Paper

This working paper is a bottom-up initiative of a group of stakeholders from the European repository community. Its purpose is to outline an aspirational vision of a European Network of FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs). This initiative originates from the workshop entitled “Towards exploring the idea of establishing the Network”. The paper was created in close connection with the wider community, as its core was built on community feedback and the first draft of the paper was shared for community-wide consultation. This paper will serve as input for the EOSC Task Force on Long Term Digital Preservation. One of the core activities mentioned in the charter of this Task Force is to produce recommendations on the creation of such a network. The working paper puts together a vision of how a European network of FAIR-enabling TDRs could be based on the community’s needs and its most important functions: Networking and knowledge exchange, stakeholder advocacy and engagement, and coordination and development. The specific activities hosted under these umbrella functions could address the wide range of topics that are important to TDRs. Beyond these functions and the challenges they address, the paper presents a framework to highlight aspects of the Network to further explore in the next steps of its development

The TRUST Principles for digital repositories

As information and communication technology has become pervasive in our society, we are increasingly dependent on both digital data and repositories that provide access to and enable the use of such resources. Repositories must earn the trust of the communities they intend to serve and demonstrate that they are reliable and capable of appropriately managing the data they hold. Following a year-long public discussion and building on existing community consensus1, several stakeholders, representing various segments of the digital repository community, have collaboratively developed and endorsed a set of guiding principles to demonstrate digital repository trustworthiness. Transparency, Responsibility, User focus, Sustainability and Technology: the TRUST Principles provide a common framework to facilitate discussion and implementation of best practice in digital preservation by all stakeholders.Puede accederse a una versión en español de este artículo haciendo clic en "Documentos relacionados".Servicio de Difusión de la Creación Intelectua