Slides for presentation at #WeMissiPRES, online, 22 September 2020. Presentation highlights the role for digital preservation as noted in the RDA COVID-19 Working Group Recommendations and Guidelines on Data Sharing (June 2020) DOI: https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00052. Natalie Harrower is the Director of the Digital Repository of Ireland and chaired the Editorial Team of the RDA COVID-19 Working Group.

1. #WeMissiPres | 22 Sept 2020 online |

2. RDA COVID-19 Working Group
Recommendations and Guidelines on Data
Sharing
https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00052
@resdatall
Natalie Harrower
@natalieharrower
Digital Repository of
Ireland
@dri_ireland

3. RDA COVID-19 Working Group
Request from the European Commission to the Research Data Alliance
(RDA)
Objectives: *Develop Recommendations for Policymakers & funders to
advance
timely data & software sharing in a global health emergency;
*Provide detailed guidelines to researchers, data
professionals, clinicians,
publishers, infrastructure providers on sharing.
RDA Working Group setup within weeks, 600 members
4 Research Areas, 4 Cross-cutting themes, each with Chairs &
Moderators

7. Observations for #digipres

8. “In the current emergency context, it is a
moral imperative to preserve the data
and share it in the most open way
possible for each case”

9. Foundational
elements included
FAIR data,
domain-specific
metadata, TDRs
Trustworthy data
repositories – certified,
support PIDs, rigorously
governed, catering to
research domains,
connected to larger
research infrastructures (eg
CESSDA, ELIXIR),
committed to LTP (more
‘social’ side)Role of software and
software preservation
was highlighted
Social Science section
provides specific
guidelines on how to
preserve data in ways
that facilitate
anonymisation and
security of sensitive

10. The importance of context in preservation (beyond metadata)
“Social scientists should make available and deposit with data
repository all documentation--such as codebooks, lab journals,
informed consent form templates--which are important for
understanding the data and combining them with other data
Researchers should also make available information regarding
computing context relevant for using the data (e.g. software,
hardware configurations, syntax queries) and deposit it with
where possible.” (Social Sciences)
Understanding that COVID-19 data, if preserved, could assist with

11. Still some lack of clarity on the distinction between storage
and preservation
Storage referred to as both ‘during the research process’ and
‘for access and reuse’
However…
Preservation mentioned 40 times, Repository 99 times, and
desirable repositories defined as TDRs committed to long
term preservation of data.

12. @natalieharrower
Thank you!
More info:
rd-alliance.org