1. Challenges in Implementing Data Sharing Principles
7/11/ 2016
George
ARC-South Africa

2. Outline Introduction Lessons: history of open data access
Policy design
Access requirements (regional mechanisms)
Consent
Administrative burdens
New ways of acknowledgement
Going forward

3. Introduction
Earth Observation community: advocates for open access to enable wide-scale sharing of data
A number of key documents have established on the principle of open access
The rationale behind these policies is that research results and data generated through public funding should be freely available to the wider research community, to realize their full benefit

4. Introduction: main hurdles (EO & Insitu)
Key data providers are not completely state-funded and need to generate income from some data sets
Weather Services
Agricultural resources data
Mineral resources data
Sensitivity of data:-Conflicting policies with open access
No guidance with respect to private companies interested in generating money out of the data
Recognizing Regional Mechanisms to data hosted centrally (SA)

5. Out with the old?
Data sharing has been pushed for a number of years now: reconsideration of issues arising from implementation of data access policies is timely and appropriate. new policies, new forms of practice and innovative governance models
An new Alliance: to explore how to enable data sharing through various initiatives, including better harmonization of policies, funding, and regional mechanism

6. Lessons: history of open data access
Effective strategies (is funding projects and custodian institutions with open access in mind). Research ethics do not accommodate just reaping where one did not contribute)
Support of funders to generation, share and compare data as part of specific EO National targets
Establish regional REO-Data Access Committees REO-DACs) to manage access requests

7. Lessons: history of open data access
Uncoordinated open access; -not feasible if confidentiality commitments made to research participants are to be upheld
Thus, apply for access to data through a managed access system, (formal applications-approval from REO-DAC)
Managed access repositories should become the norm, allowing data to be released while maintaining responsible scientific practice
Funders’ policies should not prescribe how data should be shared, but rather require that researchers have a plan for doing so.

8. Policy
Challenges in implementing an open access policy is identifying the governance structures and procedures that are needed
Adoption of externally developed policies
An uncritical adoption of existing practice in the field, rather than appropriate deliberation as to what should be best practice
The dangers are that the policies developed elsewhere may not always be coherent
Harmonize regional mechanism (SADC)

9. Access Requirements
Requirements for access to data are designed around projects rather than the type of data, (same governance structures are applied to all data)
Having the same system of approval for all datasets does not recognize that the risks of disclosure or harm will vary with different datasets (Some data are lower risks & less sensitive)
Requirement for separate applications each time data is needed causes delays and involve additional costs

10. Consent
The lack of appropriate consent from institutions, SADC, & other participants is a barrier to open sharing
Broad consent to data sharing leads to situations that participants are not informed about all the uses of their data
Broad consent is contrary to privacy and data protection principles developed in many countries
Advocating for: online & dynamic consent communication portals

11. Consent Online consent avoids issues:
Re-consenting, which is costly and time-consuming (on papers).
Allows multiple different consents to be presented through an online portal
Efficient way to re-contact individuals and engage with them, so that they can make decisions about the use of their data in real time.

12. New ways of acknowledgement
Protecting the interests of participants has always been the foremost concern of researchers, regulators and policy makers
This has tended to obscure other concerns. It has become apparent that there are other areas of tension, such as appropriate recognition of data generators and how to ensure fair access to resources (just as important to the success of data sharing)
New procedures and governance structures to be developed to acknowledge and reward essential activities

13. New ways of acknowledgement
Currently, metrics affecting hiring, tenure and assessments of productivity, are orientated around publications rather than the creation of datasets for use by other researchers
In other institutions, same metrics are orientated around generating income rather than the creation of datasets for open use
Thus, “disincentives to sharing include lack of reward or credit for sharing, the substantial amount of labour required to document data in reusable forms, concerns for misuse or misinterpretation of data, control over intellectual property

14. New ways of acknowledgement
Researchers now feel that it is not worth collecting the data in the first place, and that an easier path to publication, and scientific glory, is simply to request access to data that colleagues have collected
Deal with this issue: REO-DACs can impose publication moratoriums that give data generators a lead time to publish from the data before other researchers can have access to it.

15. Administrative burdens
Another concern for those managing projects is the additional administrative load this creates
Designing policies, implementing, and administering applications for access are all considerable burdens
These costs are largely hidden (ideally this needs to be factored into grant applications)
Declining investment in data collection (has to be reconciled vs. increasing demands access data

16. Way forward
Essential that appropriate ethical and legal support is available for those developing policies
Funding of data/generation collection, archiving, and administration should be considered (academia, government, & private business)
Access requirements need to be organized around classes of data rather than being organized around projects and studies

17. If you want to walk very fast, walk alone……….
THANK YOU