Improving the Transparency of Data Access Procedures

Presentation given at the FAIR practices session of the ODISSEI Conference 2024 (Session 3). This upload contains the slides presented during this session. Session Abstract: The benefits of making data available for reuse are recognized by many. While some datasets can be openly available, others contain sensitive or personal data that needs to be protected. Many repositories, including the DANS Data Stations, provide options to publish datasets restricted access: Access is only granted after a request is evaluated by the data owner.To optimally facilitate reuse, however, detailed information about access procedures and requirements need to be available. Currently, it is often difficult for a user to assess whether they are eligible to reuse data and under what conditions. Requirements vary and may include requests for motivations, or limitations on the reuse purpose.Providing standardized ways to describe data access requirements is one of the goals of the ODISSEI Portal work. In the ODISSEI Portal, metadata from various Dutch social science data providers can be found in one interface. The Portal aims to also provide standardized and machine-actionable information about data access conditions and broker access to datasets through the Data Access Broker (DAB).To better understand and describe access conditions, ODISSEI and DANS conducted a survey that aimed to enhance and refine our knowledge of common practices. The survey results will aid us to identify common conditions that should be included in our standardization effort. Moreover, the results will improve our available guidance – for instance the Guidebook for Depositing Restricted Access and related Data Access Protocol templates for depositors.In this presentation, we showcase the results of the survey outlining the most applied data access restrictions. We discuss the resulting recommendations and next steps toward standardization. Overall, we hope to inspire the adoption of a more structured description of data access conditions and procedures to enhance the ‘A’ of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable): providing the exact conditions under which the data are accessible.