Preamble

Besides journal publications, an essential component of the research results of the Collaborative Research Center CRC 1528 “Cognition of Interaction” consists of scientific datasets. These are collected and compiled within the subprojects of the CRC.
The CRC offers many opportunities for using these datasets for collaborative research. Our data policy allows for exploiting synergies, gaining a wider interdisciplinary understanding of critical issues, and increasing the number and quality of publications. Moreover, the CRC – designed as a long-term project of international visibility and cooperation – requires careful data documentation, quality, storage, and accessibility. These aspects are the subject of this policy.

§1 Coverage

This policy applies to all members (principal investigators, postdoctoral researchers), associated members (PhD students, associates), student research assistants and other staff from member labs and cooperation partners working in the CRC, as far as research activities are carried out under the CRC Program and the data that was used for a study was generated within the CRC. Project leaders are responsible for informing everyone involved in their projects about this policy.

§2 Data Management Committee

The Data Management Committee (DMC) approves data standards developed by the Infrastructure Project (INF) and respective subprojects and serves to resolve potential disputes related to this policy. The DMC comprises at least one CRC member appointed by the CRC board, the PI of the INF-project, and the CRC scientific coordinator.

§3 Responsibilities

1. Each subproject is responsible for compliance with the agreed data standards.
2. Each subproject names a contact person who can be addressed for questions on the subproject’s data, such as:
• access rights
• data re-use
• additional information, e.g. details on data acquisition
3. All data is managed in accordance with DFG “Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Forschungsdaten“ and „Leitlinien zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis“ and the „Forschungsdatenleitlinie“ of the University of Göttingen.

§4 Storage and documentation of data

1. All datasets of the CRC that form the basis of a publication are registered with a unique reference in a central database: The data catalogue.
2. INF is responsible for managing, maintaining, and supporting the data catalogue and oversees compliance with this policy.
3. As referred to in (§4a), all datasets must be documented with meta-information (metadata). At least the metadata of each dataset will be stored in the data catalogue. The metadata includes at least the information on who collected the data, the version of the data, the date of the latest update, the contact person for data sharing requests, the storage location, and any potential use restrictions.
4. Each dataset requires an association with at least one responsible subproject.
5. Workflows for entering appropriate metadata for new records, their documentation and the definition of data standards are established in a joint effort of INF and the individual subprojects.
6. Adding new records (i.e., datasets or files) needs to be done by or with the approval of the contact person of the responsible subproject. The decision on whether the metadata provided with a new record are sufficient remains with INF.
7. Complete data must be archived according to the best practices of each field. For this purpose, INF also administrates the CRC (CRC1528 dataverse) storage space at the GRO.data research data repository hosted by the eResearch Alliance in Göttingen. Complete data comprise the elementary (raw) data, metadata, and all details required to understand the elementary data (e.g., description of data structure, methods used, documentation of the data-generating process, experimental design, etc.).
8. All data must be provided under a license permitting free use for scientific purposes upon publication.
9. All data should be provided in open formats as far as possible. Proprietary file formats should be avoided.
10. Metadata (in the data catalogue; see §4a) and the complete data (in an appropriate repository, e.g., the CRC1528 dataverse, see §4g) must be deposited within eight weeks after the publication has been published. The PI(s) of the involved CRC subproject(s) must adhere to this deadline.

§5 Access to data

1. All metadata in the data catalogue can be accessed publicly.
2. Each CRC member should usually be granted access to all CRC datasets upon request. The contact person from the respective subproject will be responsible for providing the data. INF and the DMC will moderate in cases of conflict.
3. CRC members pledge that they will not pass any data or passwords that enable access to the data catalogue to third parties. Until datasets are publicly available (see §5d), releasing data to non-members of the CRC will require explicit permission from the responsible subproject.
4. All data will be made publicly available as soon as possible, but at the latest, one year after use within a publication, unless legitimate reasons prevent this. The DMC must confirm the legitimacy of the reasons.

§6 Use of data

1. All rights on the data remain with the original data owner.
2. CRC members using data supplied by other CRC researchers for scientific publication must appropriately acknowledge the use of the data in the publication. Potential co-authorship has to follow the rules of good scientific practice. Before any work using data generated in the CRC is submitted for publication, the PIs of the subprojects that provided the data must be consulted.