Open educational resources (OER)
OERs are open access teaching or learning materials. More information
Open Research Data
According to the definition given by the European Commission, research data refers to the factual or numerical information collected for examination and consideration, which serves as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation.
Data can be considered open when it is both freely accessible and available for free, and when it can be used for other research purposes beyond its original intent.
Data Management Plan (DMP)
The data management plan (DMP) is a formal document that outlines the data generated or collected during a research project's lifespan, along with strategies for managing them during and after the project's completion. As a living and versionable document, it can be updated and modified throughout the project's life.
To create a data management plan, you can use the CORA.eiNa DMP, a free tool developed by the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia (CSUC), which offers various templates depending on the funding entity. For guidance on how to use the tool, you can refer to a video tutorial developed by the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). Once you have completed your plan, you can submit the final version for publication in the UAB's Digital Deposit of Documents (DDD) using the self-archiving form.
If you have any doubts about the preparation or publication of the DMP, contact your reference library through Pregunt@.
Data management plan for the doctoral thesis
If you're a doctoral student, we recommend consulting the "Guide to Prepare a Data Management Plan" created by the CSUC research support working group. You can also access a specific template for preparing your DMP linked to your thesis on CORA.eiNa DMP. To better understand the benefits of creating a DMP and how it can help organize the research data of your thesis, we suggest watching a video created by UPF, aimed specifically at doctoral students.
Complying with institutional research policy
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has an institutional policy on open access to research data, which was approved by the Council of Government on December 14, 2022. As per this policy, teaching and research staff, as well as doctoral students who work with research data during their research, are encouraged to make their data publicly available upon completion of their research. This can be achieved by depositing the data in a trusted repository such as CORA. Research Data Repository or any other thematic or multidisciplinary repository.
Complying with funding agency requirements and current legislation
In accordance with the requirements of European and state research programs, publicly funded projects must comply with certain data management standards. This includes the creation of a data management plan, which should be deposited in a repository, as well as the obligation to make scientific publications and research data available in open access, whenever possible. The research data should also adhere to the FAIR principles, which means that they should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
Promoting open access to research results, including publications, data, codes, and methodologies, is a key aspect of the state law on science, technology, and innovation published in 2022. To learn more about legal mandates and funding agencies:
- Law 17/2022 of September 5 on science, technology, and innovation (in Spanish)
- State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023 (in Spanish)
- H2020 program of the European Commission
- Horizon Europe program of the European Commission
Ensuring Compliance with Editorial Policies
In addition to legal mandates and funding agency requirements, it is important to respect the editorial policies of scientific publishers. Many publishers require that the data underlying research results be made publicly available in open repositories to facilitate peer review, reproducibility, and increase trust in science
Examples of editorial policies:
To guarantee the long-term preservation and sharing of research data, there are various types of repositories available to you:
CORA. Research Data Repository.
CORA Research Data Repository (RDR) is a federated and multidisciplinary data repository that allows Catalan universities and CERCA centres to publish research data sets in a FAIR mode.
CORA. Research Data Repository follows the guidelines of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Publishing UAB datasets on CORA. Research Data Repository
- To initiate the process of publishing research data, please contact your reference library through Pregunt@.
- Ensure that you follow the best practices in research data management, including recommended formats, adhering to rights and licenses, and citing the data appropriately).
- For each dataset, we recommend that you do not exceed 100 Gb in size or 10 Gb per file. If your dataset occupies more space, please contact your reference library.
- In addition to the dataset, you must provide a README file that includes information for the correct interpretation and reuse of the data.
- The library staff will provide advice and support throughout the curation process, ensuring that your data is published in accordance with the FAIR principles.
The metadata of research data located in CORA. Research Data Repository (RDR) can be found in DataCite Search, OpenAIRE, Mendeley Data, and Google Dataset Search.
Benefits of sharing research data
- Strengthens open science by making data freely available
- Increases the visibility and impact of research
- Allows for data sets to be identified with DOIs, enabling citation and metrics
- Facilitates verification and reproducibility of results, ensuring transparency of research
- Promotes innovation through data sharing and reuse
- Avoids duplication in obtaining and collecting data, optimizing time, cost, and effort
Finding Repositories for Depositing Research Data
To identify an appropriate thematic repository in your field where you can deposit your research data, you can search directories such as re3data.org, FAIRsharing.org, or Repository Finder.
Discovering Published Datasets
To find datasets that you can use in your research, you can consult the following resources:
- Best practices in research data management: recommendations for formats, rights and licenses, and how to cite data (in Catalan).
- CORA. Repositori de dades de recerca:video about the repository CORA.RDR. This video is in Catalan, and it is Catalan, Spanish and English subtitled.
- Research data. FAQs on Intellectual Property and Open Access (in Catalan).
- F-UJI: Automated FAIR Data Assessment Tool developed by FAIRsFAIR.
- Research data management (contents created by the Research Support Working Group of CSUC).
- Recommendations on managing research data addressed to researchers. Authored by Maredata Spanish Open Research Data Network.
