Open Access To Research Data: The European Commission’s Consultation In Progress

The European Commission held a public consultation on open access to research data on July 2 in Brussels inviting statements from researchers, industry, funders, IT and data centre professionals, publishers and libraries. The inputs of these stakeholders will play some role in revising the Commission’s policy and are particularly important for the ongoing negotiations on the next big EU research programme Horizon 2020, where about 25-30 billion Euros would be available for academic research. Five questions formed the basis of the discussion:

• How we can define research data and what types of research data should be open?
• When and how does openness need to be limited?
• How should the issue of data re-use be addressed?
• Where should research data be stored and made accessible?
• How can we enhance “data awareness” and a “culture of sharing”?