
Sharing, preservation and licensing: Introduction
Research data remain a valuable resource, even after the research project for which they were collected and used is completed. Sharing the research outcomes enables future researchers to open up new lines of enquiry without the duplication of effort involved in collecting the data again. This unit will explore the various reasons for and against, and benefits of data sharing.
The decision to share your data will in turn require the consideration of a number of issues relating to its subsequent discovery, access and future use. This unit will help you identify the key points you need to consider when making your data available to other researchers. It will also consider the options for the dataset's long-term preservation, accessibility and licensing.
You may not yet have substantive research data to share, but you may be a user of someone else's data. Understanding the issues involved in data sharing will make you a more knowledgable consumer of secondary sources of data.