Governments around the world fund billions of dollars in research every year. Ensuring that the results of research are available to the public, other researchers and industry has become an important underlying value in order to maximize the impact of our publicly funded research. This session will discuss what’s driving the trend towards greater openness and provide an overview of international developments that will help put Canada’s activities into context.

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Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

2. You need “data” for data science
(Kayur Patel, this morning)
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3. Open Science
Outline of Presentation
• What is open science?
• What’s driving this trend?
• The policy environment
• Research data
• Conclusions
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015
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4. What is open science?
 Began with open access to publications, but moving to
research data and other outputs
 Parallel to Open Government/Open Data movement
Openness means:
• Sharing and access to all types of research outputs
• Transparency of research findings
• Open peer review & open citations
• Equitable flow of knowledge
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5. 5
This
is
big
data…

6. Research data is a subset of “big data”
Research data are the “data, records, files or other
evidence, irrespective of their content or form (e.g. in
print, digital, physical or other forms), that comprise
research observations, findings or outcomes, including
primary materials and analysed data.”(Monash
University Research Data Policy)
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Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

7. What is driving this trend?
“Public access is intended to accelerate the dissemination of fundamental
research results that will advance the frontiers of knowledge and help
ensure the nation’s future prosperity”
(National Science Foundation, March 18, 2015)
Benefits of Research Data Management
1. Verification, reproducibility and transparency of scientific results
2. New scientific discoveries through collaboration and integration of
datasets
3. Greater social and economic impact through application of research
outputs
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Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

8. What is driving this trend?
And, because we can!
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Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

9. Move towards openness
Slide from Giulia Ajmone Marsan, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015 9

10. Open Scientific Research Data
We are committed to openness in scientific research data to speed
up the progress of scientific discovery, create innovation, ensure
that the results of scientific research are as widely available as
practical, enable transparency in science and engage the public in
the scientific process.
Expanding Access to Scientific Research Results
We endorse the principle that increasing access to the peer-
reviewed, published results of publicly funded published
research will accelerate research, drive innovation, and benefit
the economy.
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G8 Science Ministers, June 2013

11. Global Research Council- May 2013
Action Plan towards Open Access to Publications
“In order to increase their return on investments, research councils encourage
open access to all results from publicly funded research which originated from
their funding. This relates specifically to journal articles.”
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Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

12. Kathleen Shearer - Cybera September 2015
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Research funders’ Open Access policies
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13. Current policy context in Canada
Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government 2014-2016
Tri-Agencies (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC)
• Consultation in 2013 (Report: Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy
Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada)
• Comprehensive Brief on Data Management Policies, April 2015
• Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications
• Draft Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management
“…the Government of Canada
will establish a government-
wide approach to Open Science
to increase access to federally-
funded scientific publications
and data.”
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015 13

14. Draft Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on
Digital Data Management
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015
• Data Management Planning
• Constraints and obligations “Research data must be
managed in conformity with all commercial, legal and ethical
obligations” (including privacy and confidentiality)”
• Adherence to Standards
• Collection and Storage
• Metadata
• Preservation, Retention and Sharing
• Timeliness
• Acknowledgement and Citation
• Efficient and Cost Effective
NINE PRINCIPLES

15. 15
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015
Policies are an important lever to
move this trend forward

16. But we need more than just principles and policies
These services support only a small portion
of research data produced in Canada!
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Domain data services Institutional data
services
International all-
purpose
Infrastructure and Services
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

17. 17
The data landscape
The 2011 survey by Science, found that
over half of those polled store their
data only in their laboratories and
48.3% of respondents were working
with datasets that were less than 1GB in
size. Science 11 February 2011: Vol.
331 no. 6018 pp. 692-
693 DOI: 10.1126/science.331.6018.692
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

18. Trend towards distributed, global
networked infrastructure for research data
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• New infrastructure models for
research data are distributed
systems that bridge central
domain approaches with
institutional services and
repositories
• Distributed models are more
sustainable (because they are
built on many nodes)
• The Internet is an example of a
highly successful distributed
system!

19. A lot of this is about cultural change
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20. Many researchers would rather share their
toothbrush than their data!
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21. From Wiley’s Research Data Insights Survey, 2014
2,250 responses from around the world
http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2014/11/03/how-and-why-researchers-share-data-and-why-they-
don’t/
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Researchers attitudes about data sharing
Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

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From the cover of “Cultural Change Through Measurable Management” by Robin Byrne
Both policy
requirements and
incentives are critical
for cultural change

23. Some concluding thoughts
• We don’t yet know the full benefits of making
research outputs available
• The trend towards open science is global and gaining
in momentum
• To remain in step with our international peers,
Canada must continue to invest in research data
management 23Kathleen Shearer – Cyber Summit, Banff AB - September 29, 2015

24. Thank you
Kathleen Shearer
Executive Director, Confederation of Open Access
Repositories
Consultant,
Canadian Association of Research Libraries
Research Data Canada
Association of Research Libraries (US)
email: m.kathleen.shearer@gmail.com
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