Share data and collaborate

Make sure that your data has persistent unique identifiers (DOI or similar) so the ones you share the data with can cite it correctly.

When sharing data and collaborating some points should be addressed

In many cases, if the data does not contain any personal information, the data can be made completely open.

This may be done using international databases like NCBI and EMBL-EBI, or via the Swedish National Data Service (SND, Svensk nationell datatjänst).

Sharing data securely

If the data contains personal information, and it is not possible to anonymize the data, it cannot be shared completely open – instead more secure options are needed as well as agreements that regulate access and what the recipient (e.g a collaborator at another university or a private company) is allowed to do or not with the data.

In most cases metadata can be made completely open, and should then include a reference to the real data and how to request access.

The process for drawing up agreements for the transfer of personal data is described here.

Licencing data

A licence is a formal statement issued by the holder of the rights to a dataset, giving permission to use the dataset in certain ways.

You might, for example, specify that if the data is reused, you must be cited as the creator – or that the data may be used for research and educational purposes, but not in commercial contexts.

Licences for data can be:

• Traditional data sharing or collaboration agreements, which grant rights only to specific individuals or entities.
• ‘Open’ licenses, which grant rights to anyone, often subject to certain minimal conditions like attribution of the data’s owner. Commonly used open licences for data include Creative Commons and Open Data Commons licences.