ESRC Research data policy

The ESRC Research data policy states that research data created as a result of ESRC-funded research should be openly available to the scientific community to the maximum extent possible, through long-term preservation and high quality data management.

From April 2011, the ESRC requires a data management plan for all research award applications where new data are being created. Such a plan will promote a structured approach to managing data throughout the research lifecycle, with research data ready for depositing and sharing afterwards.

ESRC applicants will find guidance on the ESDS data management planning page. A plan should detail data management activities including: quality assurance and back-up procedures; expected difficulties in data sharing and plans to address them; ethical measures to enable data sharing; and should allocate responsibilities.

ESRC has a longstanding arrangement with the UK Data Archive as a place of deposit for research data, with award holders required to offer data resulting from research grants to the Archive via the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). ESDS enables data re-use by preserving data and making them available to the research and learning communities.

Award holders must offer their data to ESDS within three months of completing their grant, by submitting a data review form. However, guidance can and should be sought at the start of an award and not at the end, especially if difficulties in sharing research data are anticipated.