openICPSR: Public access data sharing at ICPSR

There exists a growing desire, and growing requirements for scientific research data collected by federal funds to be shared publicly and without charge. Agencies such as the NSF and NIH require data management plans as part of research proposals and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is requiring federal agencies to develop plans to increase public access to results of federally funded scientific research. To be effectively shared, data must be described and documented, discoverable online, and accessible, both today and into the future. Data must be curated. Data curation requires data sharing entities are sustainable. Sustainability requires funding. In early 2014, ICPSR launched a fee-for-deposit service that provides free access to data and documentation to the public and is sustained by deposit fees. openICPSR is a research data-sharing service for the social and behavioral sciences. openICPSR data are: widely and immediately accessible at no cost to data users, safely stored by a trusted repository dedicated to long-term data stewardship, and protected against confidentiality and privacy concerns. This session will demonstrate the openICPSR system and discuss how researchers can take advantage of this new means of archiving data to comply with federal data sharing and preservation standards