Sharing and publishing research data increases your research impact by giving other researchers an opportunity to reuse the data in new and exciting research endeavours.
The benefits of publishing and sharing include:
If your dataset has high re-use potential, you might consider submitting information about the dataset for publication in a research data journal.
Some examples of research data journals:
Researchers need to consider ethical issues when making data available to others.
Ethics enquiries can be directed to: research.ethics@federation.edu.au
Federation University research ethics and integrity website
The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance can be downloaded in full or summary.
The CARE principles cover:
As a researcher, you are directly responsible for the storage, security, and retention of data collected during the course of your research.
Minimum periods are mandatory for retention of research data and primary materials.
Federation researchers need to consider some, if not all, of the policies and codes below:
Retaining your research data
Data should be considered for permanent retention if the research:
Permanent retention of research data may be affected by:
Federation.figshare is the preferred storage option for completed Federation University datasets
However, in some fields the use of a disciplinary-based data repository may be embedded in standard research practice.
The Digital Curation Centre's guide to evaluating data repositories may be useful.
The following sources will help you to identify repositories within your field:
Not all data can be be shared. Some issues to be considered:
Copyright
For information and advice regarding copyright, see the Copyright & Licencing or contact Federation University Copyright Office.
Ownership/Intellectual Property
Ownership and management of intellectual property at Federation University Australia is governed by:
This includes data created by staff and students, and governs rights to those data for staff or students transferring between institutions.
Privacy laws
All confidentiality agreements between the researcher and participants must be respected. It is advisable for researchers to include information about data storage and data access to participants during the consent process.
A persistent identifier will help others cite your data.
Note: Federation.figshare will create a DOI when publishing your data
Benefits of data citation include:
Within the Creative Commons framework, there are several licensing choices.
The ARDC guide to Research Data Rights Management Guide might be useful.
Before choosing a license, consult the links on this page to Federation University's Intellectual Property Procedure and Federation University Statute (Part 7 - Intellectual Property) regarding disclosure and use of intellectual property.
In some cases you might have to retain physical data (e.g. soil samples, DNA samples, freeze-dried bacterial samples, etc).
Check with your faculty regarding the facilities and procedures for storage of these materials.
Relevant documents: