Conference Programme

Ever since the origin of the FAIR data guiding principles, various members of the DANS staff have been involved in a variety of activities on thinking about their implications and implementing them. This paper presents an overview of the fruits of our work so far and sketches our ideas for the years to come. We were involved as co-authors of the original publication on the FAIR principles, developed and tested FAIR metrics, worked on tools to rate the FAIRness of datasets, on a FAIR checklist for researchers, we evaluated how our own data archives score on FAIRness, we compared the principles to the requirements of the Data Seal of Approval and the CoreTrustSeal, explored the applicability of the FAIR principles to Software Sustainability, prepared guidelines for FAIR data management, and we lead the prominent Horizon 2020 FAIRsFAIR project in the context of the European Open Science Cloud.

The preservation of research data to enable replication and reuse is critically dependent on efficient, effective and sustainable data stewardship by the research communities. The certification of trustworthy data repositories (TDRs) – custodian organizations that ensure data stewardship and long-term preservation – by means of a standard such as the CoreTrustSeal is an established and recognized procedure to support long-term access to reusable data. Likewise, the FAIR Guiding Principles and the developing FAIR metrics have largely codified the contemporary discourse and policies on research data management and stewardship. The proximity of objectives between the CoreTrustSeal certification of TDRs and the implementation of FAIR Principles calls for a close examination of their overlaps and complementarities. In particular, the concept of FAIR data cannot be detached from the characteristics of the data infrastructure, the environment in which FAIR data objects reside. It is therefore necessary to examine, under which circumstances the assessment of FAIRness should be carried out at collection- or repository-level, and to what extent CoreTrustSeal certification can be considered positioning TDRs as enabling FAIR data.

Collection institutions (Libraries, Archives, Galleries, and Museums) are responsible for storing and preserving large amounts of digital data, which can range from historical/public figure records, to state or countrywide events. The ingest process often requires sifting through large amounts of data which may not always be sorted or categorized from the source/donor. It is possible to discover information that was not intended to be disclosed should the donor not be privy to the existence of said material. This issue is typically handled by communicating with the donor, however, if they have no relation to what has been uncovered in the data, further steps may need to be taken. If the data belong to or are about someone living, that person may need to be contacted, depending on the nature of the data discovered. If the person of interest is no longer living, legally there would no issue disclosing all information uncovered, however, implications for living relatives must be considered should the disclosed information be potentially revealing or harmful to them. This can include hereditary health issues, political or religious views, and other sensitive information. There are significantly more variables to consider, such as public interest and defamation which can heavily impact the decision process following the discovery of sensitive data, all whilst guided, but not necessarily enforced by law. This remains somewhat of a gray area as the entities handling such data are often exempt from these laws and principles, making these decisions ethically and morally based more so than legally. In this article, the Australian laws and policies that surround privacy issues, defamation, and data relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture are explored. The aim is to raise awareness on potential issues that may arise in collection institutions as well as potential threats already sitting in storage and the laws and policies that may serve as guidelines to help overcome/mitigate such issues.