JISC Advises Openness in light of Climate Change Report

JISC press release (8 July 2010) gives "new advice for universities" in light of the Russell report, which reviewed allegations arising from the series of hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia. The new advice is also prompted by the recent FOI ruling on Queen's University Belfast's dispute around tree ring data.

The JISC advice reads as follows:

Yesterday saw the launch of the Independent Climate Change Emails Review – with JISC supporting its call for openness in research data.The Review was started in December 2009 after emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit were hacked and published online.Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary of JISC, said: “The report strongly states the need for researchers to be open with their data.  JISC fully supports openness between researchers in sharing information, processes and outputs.  We need to move away from a culture of secrecy and towards a world where researchers can benefit from sharing expertise throughout the research lifecycle.” “Digital technologies like social networking sites, online open access repositories and the use of virtual research environments are cost-efficient and timesaving ways for universities to promote this kind of collaboration and get more for their money when it comes to research,” he added.The Review was started in December 2009 after emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit were hacked and published online.In the light of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Queen’s University Belfast cases, JISC has started work to provide up-to-date guidance for researchers and universities on Freedom of Information matters and how they affect the way people manage research data, to be released in the autumn.JISC is also shortly to announce details of the latest investment in managing research data to help researchers present complex datasets - like those used by the Climate Research Unit at UEA - in a more open and accessible way.  Greater openness about the origin of data and the way in which it has been analysed will permit new and innovative research based on existing results.Read the Independent Climate Change Review at <http://www.cce-review.org/>Find out more about how JISC is supporting research data management at <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/mrd.aspx>Follow developments on the research data management blog at <http://researchdata.jiscinvolve.org/wp/>