Why is it important for researchers to release open data?
Data is a key basis for unlocking innovation. Open access to research data can empower creative people to assist analysis and research. Digital creatives can use your data in ways which can benefit your research effort or facilitate better communication of your ideas to a broader audience. Your data could also be used to provide a community service.
Your data may be more powerful if it is combined with other data; however, unless you openly release the data you may not realise the benefits due to restrictive copyright.
The amount of data we hold is exploding, and opening up access to data is becoming a key factor in researchers’ success in obtaining competitive grant funding.
Participating in Unleashed is a great opportunity to connect with talented South Australians to unlock innovation.
What data should you consider releasing openly?
It is understood that researchers will not want to open up data that will provide an advantage to competitors with regards to publication, IP, or patents. Conversely, the research environment is
currently shifting so that data generated through taxpayer funded research will need to be released wherever possible.
For the purposed of Unleashed 2014, researchers may consider releasing data that:
1.They are no longer using.
2.They have already extracted a great deal of value in the form of publications.
3.They could extract more value with the provision of technical skills they do not possess themselves.
4.They have the legal rights to release. (You may need to seek permission from third parties to release their data.)
Researchers might also consider releasing data that might assist business or the community.
Some research data portals
Not all of the data listed on these portals is open.
Research Data Australia: The flagship service of the Australian National Data Service (ANDS).
Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) Portal: the primary access point for search, discovery, access and download of data collected by the Australian marine community. Primary datasets are contributed by the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) an Australian Government Research Infrastructure project, and the Commonwealth Agencies with responsibilities in the Australian marine jurisdiction (Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Institute for Marine Science, Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Geoscience Australia and the Royal Australian Navy).
The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research network (TERN) Data Discovery Portal: a catalogue of research metadata built by regularly harvesting records from the metadata infrastructure of TERN Facility data portals. The Portal enables users to access a single platform to discover data across all TERN Facility portals.
CSIRO Data Access Portal: provides access to data published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) across a range of disciplines.
Atlas of Living Australia: contains information on all the known species in Australia aggregated from a wide range of data providers, including museums, herbaria, community groups, government departments, individuals, and universities.