The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are committed to the principles of open data and open science. The reuse of data plays an important role in scientific discovery and scientific assurance.
To help achieve this, ESRC has for many years required that data collected with ESRC funding are made available for others to use in the future. This expectation is outlined in the ESRC Research Data Policy.
The ESRC Research Data Policy was last revised in 2018. Since then there have been changes and developments in data practices, technology and legal and policy frameworks that affect how social science data are collected and accessed for research. ESRC is also working with other research councils to develop a UKRI-wide data policy.
Against this backdrop, ESRC commissioned Professor Angela Daly and her team at University of Dundee to independently review the ESRC Research Data Policy. They carried out research with UK social science research data stakeholders to make recommendations to the ESRC about why and how the policy could be reformed, to ensure it remains relevant and continues to promote a culture of open science.
The review team also published a blog post, informed by the review, outlining how ESRC can develop its policies in response to a changing data landscape.
Next steps
ESRC has published a response to the review, outlining the next steps to further develop the policy.
Informed by the review and recommendations, ESRC is working closely with colleagues across UKRI to consider how we can align our expectations for research data sharing and management, and how to meet the need for a more joined-up policy approach across UKRI.
Research data is a priority across UKRI. We have collectively committed in our corporate plan to “develop our open data policy to incentivise research data sharing, and where appropriate protocols, software, and code to support reuse, research integrity and collaboration”.
Our collective approach will be informed by ESRC’s research data policies and the review recommendations. Many of these are also relevant for good research data sharing practice across different disciplinary domains.
ESRC will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders, including the research and data community, to ensure that a new policy is feasible, support the community, and aligns with the wider UKRI collective effort to achieve open data and open science.
Last updated: 26 September 2024