This policy covers all research affiliated with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. It does not cover administrative data, nor does it cover legal issues. It is assumed that all personal data is handled in compliance with GDPR as well as with SDU’s own rules for handling personal data. In this policy, the term “researcher” refers to anyone carrying out research as a researcher affiliated to the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Open access to publications
PURE must be used to record all research publications. To support the goal of having open and free access to all publications, researchers are encouraged to obtain Open Access from the publisher whenever this is feasible. When this is not the case, researchers should, if possible, publish a copy of the manuscript, as close as possible to the final publication in a suitable open archive, also known as Green Open Access. Researchers are also encouraged to store a Green Open Access pdf version of their publications in PURE, for example by sending such a version to puresupport@bib.sdu.dk.
All researchers are encouraged to obtain a public ORCID id and to link it to their PURE profile at SDU. The easiest way to do so is to register with ORCID through PURE.
Open access to research data and storage
To ensure transparency and reproducibility of published research results that rely on research data such as data sets, codes, empirical analyses etc., and to ensure that research data are used to their full potential, researchers should, as far as possible, make their data and metadata available through the FAIR principles:
- Findable means that others can discover your data, so relevant metadata is assigned to data and indexed in a searchable source.
- Accessible means that your data can be made available to others directly by download or through contact with the author. Whenever possible at least the metadata should be open access.
- Interoperable means that your data can be integrated with other data. The use of standard or broadly used open format for (meta)data is encouraged.
- Re-usable means that your data can be used for new research. (Meta)data should be well-documented and released under a clear usage license, which is as open as possible (e.g. Creative Commons, MIT, GPL, etc.).
The department is committed to practicing and promoting data handling in a FAIR manner and therefore supports the Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights8.
The department encourages researchers to use data management and storage solutions available at SDU, whenever possible. If this is not possible, external solutions such as Zenodo9 can be used instead. The data should be retained for a period of a minimum of 5 years after publication of the results, as stated in the Danish code of conduct for research integrity10. Personal data must be deleted, anonymised or archived in the
Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet) – if accepted – according to the current legislation11. Whenever in doubt, researchers are encouraged to consult the SDU Research Data Management Support12 for inquiries about the best solution for their needs.
Research assessment
Open Access publications will be evaluated as all other publications in decisions regarding hiring, tenure and promotion, as recommended by the San Fransisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)13.
The department strives to be explicit about the criteria used to reach decisions in such contexts. These criteria should adhere to the guidelines set out by the Faculty of Science14.
Data management plan
When commencing a research project, it is necessary to plan for collecting, processing, analysing, storing, preserving/disposing of and disseminating the research data that is used in the project. Researchers are required to make a data management plan (DMP) for some type of research projects, such as: projects involving personal data; projects where the verification or reproducibility of the results rely on collected or produced data sets; projects involving external partners or collaborators who require a DMP; and externally funded projects where a DMP is a requirement from the funding agencies.
Responsible for writing and updating the DMP should be either the principal investigator (PI) of the project or the appointed data contact person from within the project (who could also be the PI). If in doubt about the necessity of a DMP, the research staff are encouraged to consult the SDU RDM Support. For a project requiring a DMP, this should be developed before the project begins and updated whenever necessary throughout the project.
Should a DMP be required by funding agencies or external collaboration partners, a DMP template might be provided. A number of standard templates for DMP are available online15.
When a researcher leaves the department
The following rules should be implemented when a researcher who is responsible for data leaves the department:
If the leaving researcher is responsible for data related to a project that continues at the department, then the responsibility for the data must be transferred to another researcher at the department after obtaining the necessary permissions (e.g. from the Danish Data Protection Agency or SDU RIO).
If the leaving researcher is responsible for data related to a project that is discontinued, the (meta)data should either be stored in an online repository (if they do not contain personal or otherwise confidential information), or they should be offered to the Danish National Archives for archiving (if they contain personal or otherwise confidential information). If the Danish National Archives does not accept the data, then the researcher is required to delete or anonymise them immediately.
Responsibilities
The department will ensure that the policy is revised every second year at minimum, the next time being early 2023, or after the SDU Open Science Policy is revised. This is the responsibility of the Head of Department.
Each Head of Section at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is responsible for ensuring the knowledge of the policy among the section members.