Credit: CC0 Public Domain Research funding organisations, research organisations, and individual researchers have different needs and requirements when it comes to research data management (RDM). Science Europe's latest publication, the 'Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management', aims to align these RDM requirements across research funding and research organisations in Europe.
The practical guide has been developed by experts from Science Europe Member Organisations and in consultation with the broader research stakeholder community in order to maximise its usefulness. It presents core requirements for Data Management Plans (DMPs) and criteria for the selection of trustworthy repositories, as well as guidance on how to put these requirements and criteria into practice.
"These requirements and criteria will help to align rules on data management throughout Europe. The guide is designed to aid researchers in complying with RDM requirements even when working with different research funders and research organisations. Alignment is especially important in light of the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and an increasing tendency, in the research community, towards data sharing" explains Professor Stan Gielen, President of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Member of the Science Europe Governing Board, and co-initiator of this project.
"We are very excited about this new resource. A number of Science Europe Member Organisations have already implemented it and more have committed to do so this year" added Stephan Kuster, Secretary General of Science Europe. "Science Europe has developed this guide for the wider research community and we would like to encourage them to use it as a basis to set up their own DMP templates. At a later stage it can also serve as reference document for the evaluation of DMPs."
Explore further: Roadmap: Global research data management advisory platform combines DMPTool and DMPonline
More information: Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management: scieur.org/rdm-guide