Research data policy for Örebro University

Örebro University supports national and international efforts to make research results and research data produced at the university as open access. In accordance with the research bill from 2020, the goal is that research data from research conducted at Örebro University with public funds will be fully open access no later than 2026. The university also follows the national roadmap for open science adopted by Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions in 2021, which aims to clarify higher education institutions’ responsibilities.

The Swedish Research Council’s definition of research data applies:

Research data can be of many different types and formats, such as results from experiments and measurements, observations from field work, statistics, questionnaire responses, interviews, images, and text. […] Within the framework of this assignment, the term research data is used in a broad sense, as digital information created or collected for analysis for research purposes.

Örebro University’s goal is that research data, as far as possible, is to comply with the international FAIR principles – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Consideration shall be given to current regulations and research ethics principles. In cases where research data cannot be made available for ethical or commercial reasons, metadata must be open access. Research data must be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.

Proprietary rights

As the principal and authority responsible for archives, the university owns the primary data produced in research as a rule. With the support of the intellectual property rights of academic staff, researchers have the right to their research results, though in general, research data are not covered by this exemption.

Division of responsibility

The university’s responsibility

1. Provide support to the researcher on following the research data policy, the research funding body’s requirements, and any other recommendations regarding research data.
2. Ensure that there is a specially designated support function (Data Access Unit, DAU), which provides support in the processing, reviewing, and making available of research data and metadata based on FAIR principles, in accordance with existing agreements between the university and the Swedish National Data Service (SND)
3. Provide secure and appropriate technical solutions and services that make research data available and enable its storage and preservation.
4. Educate doctoral students and other employees in good research practice and procedures for handling research data and inform them about the support offered.

The researcher’s/doctoral student’s/ research team’s responsibility

1. Follow the research data policy, the research funding body’s requirements, and any other recommendations regarding research data.
2. Prepare a data management plan that follows the university’s or the research funding body’s requirements, at the outset of the research project.
3. Be familiar with current rules and regulations for research.
4. Inform partners about the university’s research data policy and consider the requirement for making research data available in connection with the writing of agreements with third parties.
5. Decide whether research data should be made available locally or via external research data repository/catalogue.