Data Seal of Approval Overview

Olivier Rouchon – olivier.rouchon@cines.frData Seal of Approval conference, Florence10th December 2012

Agenda•Foundations•Objectives•Principles•Governance•Regulations•Responsibility•Guidelines

FoundationsTrust : “Reliance on and confidence in the truth,

worth, reliability of a person or thing”

• Trust is a process• To greater quality• To better relationships• To more certainty

• Trust is transitive

Transparency: “Minimum degree of disclosure to which agreements, dealings, practices, and transactions are open to all for verification”

FoundationsCommunity: The Data Seal of Approval was established by a number of institutions committed to the long-term archiving of research data. By assigning the seal, the DSA community seeks to guarantee the durability of the data concerned, but also to promote the goal of durable archiving in general.

ObjectivesThe Data Seal of Approval is granted to repositories that are committed to archiving and providing access to data in a sustainable way.Data Producers

Assurance of reliable data StorageFunding Bodies

Confidence that data is available for re-useData Consumers

Enables assessment of repositories

PrinciplesAchieving the DSA means that the data archive or repository is in compliance with the sixteen DSA guidelines, as determined through an assessment procedure.The focus is essentially on quality of the data, which have to be:

• Available on the Internet• Accessible (personal data, intellectual property)• Usable (file formats)• Reliable• Citable (can be referred to)

Governance

DSA Community Members

DSA General Assembly

DSA Board Peer reviewers

Governance•All recipients of a current DSA are automatically members of the DSA Community.

•Organisations that are part of the DSA Community may choose to become Members of the DSA General Assembly and designate one representative with voting rights.•The General Assembly elects the DSA Board and provides advice to the Board when needed•The DSA Board consists of six to eight representatives elected for two year terms with re-election possible.

GovernanceThe DSA Board consists of members from: Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), CINES (France), DANS (The Netherlands), ICPSR (USA), MPI for Psycholinguistics (The Netherlands), NESTOR (Germany) and UK Data Archive (United Kingdom).

Regulations

Regulations1. The DSA Board meets formally once a year and

is elected in May of an even year for a period of two years.

2. The Board considers amendments to the DSA Guidelines and these Regulations during the period they are elected for. The changes will become effective at the end of the current Seal Period.

3. The Data Seal of Approval Guidelines remain current for a period of two calendar years, the Seal Period.

Regulations4. The Data Seal of Approval is awarded per Seal

Period.5. The DSA logo displayed includes the two-year

time period of the Seal Period.6. Each DSA Community member is contacted six

months before the end of the current Guidelines period as a prompt for renewal.

7. The organisation can then either choose to update its self-assessment for the new period and apply for the latest Seal, including a new version of the guidelines when applicable, or choose to display the outdated logo on its Web site.

Responsibility: the DSA FocusThe DSA focus is on the Repository as enabler of good Data Producer and Data Consumer practice

A data repository is designated a Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) if:

• It enables Data Producers to adhere to Guidelines 1-3 : quality of content

• It meets guidelines 4-13 : quality of dissemination and preservation

• It enables Data Consumers to adhere to guidelines 14-16 : quality of usage

→Five guidelines can be outsourced

→ Implemented by the data repository, the Seal is displayed only on the repository web site

One simple assessment process

1. Self assessment2. External review of assessment3. Eventually a second review•Assessments are filled in and stored online in a single database•Once approved the assessment including review comments will be published on repository website and publicly available•The DSA is granted for that specific seal period (two years)•It is possible to update only specific guidelines (versioning)

Awarded seals•Archaeology Data Service: Mar. 10, 2011

•DANS: Electronic Archiving SYstem (EASY): Apr. 12, 2011

•German National Library/Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB): May. 19, 2011

•Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): Dec. 06, 2012

•Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC): Sep. 18, 2012

•Platform for Archiving CINES (PAC): Mar. 15, 2011

•The Language Archive - Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics: Mar. 01, 2011

•UK Data Archive: Mar. 08, 2011