PRINCIPLES FOR PROMOTING ACCESS TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-SUPPORTED SCIENTIFIC DATA AND RESEARCH FINDINGS THROUGH INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION

"Increasing access to scientific data and research findings generated by Federal agencies or resulting from Federally funded research is a U.S. policy priority. The Interagency Working Group on Open Data Sharing Policy (IWGODSP) encourages Federal departments and agencies (“Federal agencies”) to rely on the following principles when promoting U.S. policies and positions on open data, data sharing, and increased access to scientific data in the context of U.S. international science and technology cooperation. These principles apply to unclassified scientific data generated by Federal agencies or resulting from Federally funded research (“government-supported scientific data”), which can include primary data (e.g., observations and measurements) and derived data (resulting from computations performed on the primary data), together with accompanying metadata that exist in digital form, as well as publications that result from Federally funded scientific research. As appropriate, the seven principles that may be used are as follows:

1. Scientific progress and collaboration benefit from an early and continuing commitment to the establishment, description, curation, maintenance, validation, discoverability, accessibility, and distribution of scientific data.
2. Scientific data should be made openly accessible to the extent permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality, security, and other appropriate restrictions (e.g., recognizing proprietary interests, business confidential information, and intellectual property rights).
3. Government-supported scientific data should be available without charge whenever feasible.
4. Partners in international science and technology cooperative activities should establish a data management plan at project initiation that considers the full data lifecycle for scientific data.
5. Federal agencies should encourage technical and legal interoperability to facilitate international sharing of government-supported scientific data, using compatible, publicly available and open source formats. 6. Government-supported scientific data (and publications) should be made available as early as possible, with the timing of release and the duration of any exclusive-use period explicitly defined.
6. Federal agencies should work with international science and technology partners to adopt policies and data standards that encourage open sharing of data for collaborative activities."