2.5 Data Dissemination Policies and Principles

Introduction

Data Dissemination Principles are sometimes, but not always, formal policies. They can also be more general statements about an archive’s position on the safeguarding and dissemination of data. They might reference explicit policies, such as access policies, or they might describe the legal framework of the Archive’s origin.

Typically, these statements declare a general commitment to Open Data, while also attending to the ethical and legal use of data, e.g., compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (“Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the Protection of Natural Persons with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data, and Repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)” 2016).

Relevant sections from Chapter 1

1.9 What are relevant legislations and legal questions in relation to data archiving?

Links to examples

Below is a selection of Data Dissemination policies in place in Data Archives which could serve as examples:

Open data policy – Policies. FORS. Retrieved from: https://forscenter.ch/about-fors/policies/

Data protection policy – Policies. FORS. Retrieved from: https://forscenter.ch/about-fors/policies/

Regulating access to data. UKDS. Retrieved from: https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data/legal-ethical/access-control.aspx

What to consider when creating or adapting a policy or principle

Data that have received public funding (EU regulations and national ones), data under embargo or safeguarded data under restricted access, license agreements for datasets dissemination are also components to be taken into consideration when repositories implement dissemination policies.