The Social Science Data Archive, DANS, Netherlands, has published quality guidelines for data archiving and "making data future-proof." An innovation is that the 17 guidelines apply in turn to data archives, but also data producers and data users.

The EDINA GRADE project deliverables, including a report on Geospatial data sharing behaviour in UKHE, Charlotte Waelde's groundbreaking report on licensing of geospatial databases (this challenged the Ordnance Survey view that their data is covered by copyright rather than simply the EU Database Directive), Pauline Simpson's survey or 'baseline audit' of geospatial data in IRs, and a compendium of derived geospatial data in UKHE.

Draft consultation from the RIN on high-level principles, and who has responsibility for various policies, procedures and sustainability.

There's also an open access version at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/41214

Findings – The key message is that by visualizing the role of repositories explicitly in the life cycle of the social science research enterprise, the ways that the partnerships work will be clear. These workings can be seen as a sequence of reciprocal information flows between parties to the process, triggers that signal that one party or another has a task to perform, and hand-offs of information from one party to another that take place at crucial moments. This approach envisions both cooperation and specialization.

Author(s): Ann G. Green, Myron P. Gutmann
Journal: OCLC Systems & Services
ISSN: 1065-075X
Year: 2007 Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Page: 35 - 53
DOI: 10.1108/10650750710720757
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Findings – The paper finds that significant support was expressed for the provision of bi-directional links between source and output repositories, tempered by a limited knowledge of repositories among the survey constituency and the need for reassurance on measures for the protection of data ownership. Diversity in the application of good data management practice is marked both between and within each of the disciplines surveyed, with solutions adopted characterised by a culture of self-sufficiency and the use of repositories driven by practical research requirements. Common areas for improvement have been recognised across the disciplines, notably in the processes described for the assignment of metadata, and opportunities for expert assistance in data management were identified.
Author(s): Graham Pryor
Journal: OCLC Systems & Services
ISSN: 1065-075X
Year: 2007 Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Page: 70 - 78
DOI: 10.1108/10650750710720775
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

One of Peter Murray-Rust's interesting blog items, advocating requirement to deposit theses not only electronically but in XML, and highlighting some of the difficult support needs, such as data validation. A reference to an item in ERA (Edinburgh).

MRC's Data Sharing Initiative: policy and guidance for grant-holders