Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC: Delivering Data in Science

Use the link to access the full conference report featured in Chemistry International: The News magazine of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The report opens as follows: “Nowadays, there are many high-level activities focusing on the management of research data sets, their archiving and their re-use—in effect, their publication. On 5 March 2012 ICSTI, the International Council for Scientific and Technical information, convened a one-day workshop, held at ICSU headquarters in Paris, on ‘Delivering Data in Science’ to survey some of the most pressing issues. The session on Data and the Policy Makers opened with an account by Ray Harris of the SCCID, the ICSU Strategic Coordinating Committee on Information and Data that he chaired between 2009 and 2011. As ICSU is an interdisciplinary and international body, the importance of these recommendations lies in their representing the priorities for science worldwide. The committee's six main recommendations related to scientific data were as follows: [1] ICSU National and Union Members should adopt a guide to best practice (presented in the SCCID report) covering aspects of data policy, governance, planning and organization, standards and tools, management and stewardship, and data access. This should help to foster a common view of the significance of these issues across all domains. [2] ICSU Members should explore and agree on the terms used under the umbrella of ‘Open Access’ to clarify a very muddled terminology and in consequence help to distinguish and prioritise factors leading to universal and equitable access to publications (guided by ICSTI and INASP) and data (CODATA). [3] ICSU Members should improve the whole process of creating data as a publication, with increased academic recognition, appropriate behavior modification, and a possible role for legal deposit libraries in providing infrastructure or services. [4] ICSU should use its affiliated organizations, CODATA and the World Data Service, more actively in managing large-scale data activities. [5] Practical help needs to be given to less economically developed countries, again using the existing networks of ICSU and its affiliated bodies. [6] There should be greater interaction with the private sector to use commercial expertise and resources for mutual benefit...”