Your Input Needed: Proposed Provisions for a Future Draft NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is implementing measures to update its 2003 Data Sharing Policy, issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit public input on proposed key provisions that could serve as the foundation for a future NIH policy for data management and sharing.

These provisions include:

  • Definitions related to data management and sharing;
  • A stated purpose to manage, preserve, and make scientific data accessible in a timely manner for appropriate use by the research community and the broader public;
  • The scope and requirements for all intramural and extramural research, funded or supported in whole or in part by NIH, that results in scientific data, regardless of NIH funding level or mechanism;
  • Proposed elements to be addressed in a data management and sharing plan: data types, related tools, software and/or code, data standards, data preservation and access (including timelines), terms for re-use and redistribution, limitations on access, and responsible personnel for data management oversight; and
  • An NIH compliance and enforcement plan that would include review at minimum annually and non-compliance taken into account for future funding or support decisions.

Comments on the proposed key provisions will be accepted electronically through December 10, 2018.

To further engage stakeholders, NIH will also be hosting a webinar on November 7, 2018, from 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. ET. Join the library in watching this webinar in Falk Library, Conference Room A, and afterwards participate in a discussion regarding data sharing and the Pitt Data Catalog, a data-discovery platform from the Pitt HSLS team that can help you increase the visibility of your datasets without necessarily making them public.

~Melissa Ratajeski