Building Trustworthy Data Repositories Through Certification: RDA/WDS Certification of Data Repositories IG

Meeting Objectives: The Certification IG serves the data repository community by offering space for feedback and sharing of research.Join the CoreTrustSeal (CTS) board member(s) to learn more about their new leadership and have a discussion to give feedback on the curation and preservation levels discussed in a recent CTS position paper. See: CoreTrustSeal Standards and Certification Board. (2024). Curation & Preservation Levels: CoreTrustSeal Position Paper. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11476980.The World Data System (WDS) will also share updates on the creation and outputs of the WDS Scientific Committee’s SubCommittee on Standards and Certifications. This committee is examining relevant standards and certifications as an opportunity to reduce barriers to participating and broadening WDS membership. WDS will share outcomes of a survey of WDS members and other data repositories. Group Activities and Scope: In order to guarantee data sharing, the long-term preservation of these data in sustainable digital repositories is a sine qua non. Data that are created and used by science and scholarship need to be managed, curated and archived, making sure that the substantial investments in preparing and presenting the content and tools will not be lost. Researchers need to be sure that the resources the repositories offer remain meaningful and usable over time. Moreover, the repositories themselves need to have sustainable business models. Preservation and sustainability raise challenges in many areas. The main issues related to long term preservation and sustainability remain basically unresolved, as many organizational, technical, financial and legal aspects remain open. Certification is therefore fundamental in guaranteeing the trustworthiness of digital repositories and thus in sustaining the opportunities for long-term data sharing. The Interest Group builds on previous work in the area of certification and delivers a global overview and the necessary recommendations and requirements that allow the effective implementation of certification of digital repositories on national, regional, and global levels.