News & Articles

CODATA Task Groups, 2016-2018

The 30th CODATA General Assembly, held on Sunday 11 September at the start of International Data Week and SciDataCon, approved the following Task Groups for the two year period 2016-2018.
 
New Task Groups
  • Coordinating Data Standards amongst Scientific Unions
  • Building Foundational Training in Research Data Science
  • Agriculture Data, Knowledge for Learning and Innovation
  • Citizen Science and the Validation, Curation, and Management of Crowdsourced Data (with WDS)
 
Renewed Task Groups
 
Although for reasons of continuity and recognition, the Task Group on Fundamental Constants has retained that title, in the CODATA system, this is now a standing, ongoing activity.


New CODATA Executive Committee

CODATA’s 30th General Assembly, held on Sunday 11 September prior to SciDataCon 2016 and International Data Week, elected a new Executive Committee as well the Officer 

roles of Secretary General and Treasurer.


The full list of CODATA Officers and Executive Committee is now:

President: Geoffrey Boulton
Vice-President: Takashi Gojobori
Vice-President: Niv Ahituv

Secretary General: Bonnie Carroll
Treasurer: John Broome

Ordinary ExComm Members:
Jane Hunter, Australia
Paul Laughton, RSA
DT Lee, Academia Sinica, Taipei
Jianhui LI, China
Alena Rybkina, Russia
Paul Uhlir, USA
Joseph Muliaro Wafula, Kenya
Mary Zborowski, Canada


The Rescue of Data At Risk: Task Group's First International Workshop

51 attended the "Data At Risk" Task Group's first international workshop, held this week (Sept 8-9) at UCAR in Boulder (Colorado) and generously hosted by the Center Green site of NCAR.  True to its name, the Workshop "worked" hard, dividing its time between oral presentations of Case Studies and vigorous breakout sessions.

Please see the blog post about this workshop 'The Data-At-Risk Task Group (DAR-TG) In Expansive Mood’


Legal Interoperability of Research Data: Principles and Implementation Guidelines

The CODATA-RDA Legal Interoperability Interest Group has studied the issues related to the intellectual property of data: the resulting outcome is a set of principles and practical implementation guidelines. They are offered as high-level guidance to all members of the research community—the funders, managers of data centers, librarians, archivists, publishers, policymakers, university administrators, individual researchers, and their legal counsel—who are engaged in activities that involve the access to and reuse of research data from diverse sources.  The Principles are synergistic, so their greatest benefit is realized when they are considered together.
 
The following Principles on the Legal Interoperability of Research Data focus on all types of data that are used primarily in publicly funded research in government and academia:

  • One: Facilitate the lawful access to and reuse of research data.
  • Two: Determine the rights to and responsibilities for the data.
  • Three: Balance the legal interests.
  • Four: State the rights transparently and clearly.
  • Five: Promote the harmonization of rights in research data.
  • Six: Provide proper attribution and credit for research data.
 
The guidelines have been refined through two strenuous rounds of peer review and a penultimate version of the Principles and Guidelines for Legal Interoperability of Research Data has now been made more widely available <http://www.codata.org/uploads/Legal Interoperability Principles and Implementation Guidelines_Final2.pdf>.  This document examines each of the six principles and provides guidelines for implementing these principles.
 
The Implementation Guidelines will be discussed and considered for adoption by the CODATA and RDA communities in sessions at SciDataCon <www.scidatacon.org/2016/> and the RDA Plenary https://rd-alliance.org/plenaries/rda-eighth-plenary-meeting-denver-co 
 
Any final comments and suggestions for improvements (not wholesale revision) may be made by 23 September, after which a final version will be published.


CODATA Prospectus: Strategy and Achievement 2015-2016

In advance of the General Assembly to be held in Denver, Colorado on 11 September 2016, CODATA has prepared and circulated a short Prospectus that provides a brief summary of strategy and achievement over the last two years or so.

The Prospectus emphasises CODATA’s many deliverables in this period and the extent to which these contribute to the organisations overall mission and strategy.

In addition, CODATA members and the wider community are invited to consult:


Read more CODATA news