Future-proofing access
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 6:04 am
The first step was for the Collections Development team to identify data which required depositor permission for access, or where access was limited to particular users such as researchers in UK higher education. The application of usage and access conditions by data depositors has been more typical in the past and many of these conditions are no longer necessary, because the risks associated with disclosure and sensitivity tend to decrease over time. Karen and the team are working with depositors to re-negotiate the terms of access to meet the most open category possible for their data.
For data that specify permission for every user, renegotiating depositor permission is not only time consuming, it can also be problematic — particularly where the depositor has japan rcs data moved on, retired, or, sadly, died. Even where the depositor is no longer contactable it’s often the case that the data are the intellectual property of the institution for which the data depositor worked at the time. If that institution still exists, then it’s possible to obtain permission to enable access. A potential complication arises where there are multiple rights holders – best efforts need to be made to contact each individual.
Karen and the team also discovered that access, often unnecessarily, has been limited to particular users, and may be simply down to a data owner being overly risk-averse. Some of these data collections date back 20 years when open access was not even discussed and academic depositors could request a range of barriers.
For data that specify permission for every user, renegotiating depositor permission is not only time consuming, it can also be problematic — particularly where the depositor has japan rcs data moved on, retired, or, sadly, died. Even where the depositor is no longer contactable it’s often the case that the data are the intellectual property of the institution for which the data depositor worked at the time. If that institution still exists, then it’s possible to obtain permission to enable access. A potential complication arises where there are multiple rights holders – best efforts need to be made to contact each individual.
Karen and the team also discovered that access, often unnecessarily, has been limited to particular users, and may be simply down to a data owner being overly risk-averse. Some of these data collections date back 20 years when open access was not even discussed and academic depositors could request a range of barriers.