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On 30 January 2004, 34 governments committed to work towards the establishment of access regimes for digital research data from public funding in accordance with the following objectives and principles:

Openness: balancing the interests of open access to data to increase the quality and efficiency of research and innovation with the need for restriction of access in some instances to protect social, scientific and economic interests.

Transparency: making information on data–producing organisations, documentation on the data they produce and specifications of conditions attached to the use of these data, available and accessible internationally.

Legal conformity: paying due attention, in the design of access regimes for digital research data, to national legal requirements concerning national security, privacy and trade secrets.

Formal responsibility: promoting explicit, formal institutional rules on the responsibilities of the various parties involved in data–related activities pertaining to authorship, producer credits, ownership, usage restrictions, financial arrangements, ethical rules, licensing terms, and liability.

Professionalism: building institutional rules for the management of digital research data based on the relevant professional standards and values embodied in the codes of conduct of the scientific communities involved.

Protection of intellectual property: describing ways to obtain open access under the different legal regimes of copyright or other intellectual property law applicable to databases as well as trade secrets.

Interoperability: paying due attention to the relevant international standard requirements for use in multiple ways, in cooperation with other international organisations.

Quality and security: describing good practices for methods, techniques and instruments employed in the collection, dissemination and accessible archiving of data to enable quality control by peer review and other means of safeguarding authenticity, originality, integrity, security and establishing liability.

Efficiency: promoting further cost effectiveness within the global science system by describing good practices in data management and specialised support services.

Accountability: evaluating the performance of data access regimes to maximise the support for open access among the scientific community and society at large.

They also pledged to: seek transparency in regulations and policies related to information, computer and communications services affecting international flows of data for research, and reducing unnecessary barriers to the international exchange of these data; take the necessary steps to strengthen existing instruments and – where appropriate – create within the framework of international and national law, new mechanisms and practices supporting international collaboration in access to digital research data; support OECD initiatives to promote the development and harmonisation of approaches by governments adhering to this Declaration aimed at maximising the accessibility of digital research data; and consider the possible implications for other countries, including developing countries and economies in transition, when dealing with issues of access to digital research data.

Source: OECD Ministerial Declaration at http://www.oecd.org/document/15/0,2340,en_2649_33703_25998799_1_1_1_1,00.html.

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Article at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_6/wunsch/index.html

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2004 OECD Ministerial Declaration on Access to Digital Research Data from Public Funding

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