Step 6: Open Research Data
As early as possible in your research project, it is wise to consider how you can disseminate your results beyond publishing in scientific journals and books. It is becoming increasingly common for research data to be made publicly available online, when ethically and legally possible. It has also become more common for funders and publishers to require that data or metadata be published openly.
By publishing your data, you can increase the visibility of your research and contribute to the discovery of new research results. A prerequisite for data to be published is that you have had good research data management during the project, read more about this in Step 5: Management of Research Data.
At Karlstad University, we strive to follow the international FAIR data principles, which means that research data should be managed in a way that makes them findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The goal is for research data to be published as openly as possible but as closed as necessary with regard to rules on confidentiality and personal data processing.
How to publish research data
To make your research data available, you first need to check if your funder has requirements or recommendations on where data should be published. If the funder does not have instructions for this, you should strive to publish them in a certified fee-free repository. Note that publishing in an open repository does not replace the statutory obligation that Karlstad University has to archive your research data and make it available upon request for official documents.
It is important to remember that datasets that contain any type of personal data or contain information covered by confidentiality cannot be uploaded to open repositories. Even if your data contains this type of information, you can usually create a bibliographic post in a repository that provides information about the project and the data it covers. However, the data files themselves should always be stored on Karlstad University's secure storage area, Sunet Drive.
- Sunet Drive (Intranät)
Choice of data repository
Before you publish your research data, you should contact the Research Data Group (FDG) at Karlstad University. This is important because the university has a statutory requirement to collect information about the data that KAU has made available. You can also get help and support from FDG if you have questions about the publishing process or want advice on the choice of repository.
In some research areas, there are well-established subject-specific data repositories. Consult with FDG to figure out if this could be proper outlet for your data. When it comes to general data repositories, a good choice is to use the Swedish National Data Service (SND) platform. When publishing with SND, you get help with data review and advice from SND and FDG. You also get a persistent identifier, DOI, which is linked to Karlstad University.
• Contact the Research Data Group (FDG) at KaU
• Publish data via Swedish National Data Service
• Search for data repositories
• More information about handling and publishing of research data