Joint FORCE11 & COPE Research Data Publishing Ethics Working Group Recommendations for the handling of ethical concerns relating to the publication of research data. Version 1.

Abstract

The scope of the Working Group is to develop recommendations for how data repositories, journal publishers, and institutions can handle ethical cases relating to the publication of research data, and steps to take if an ethical issue is confirmed after the publication of the dataset, or its submission for publication. We recognize that ethical considerations can arise at all stages of the research cycle, including research conceptualization, data collection and analysis, and publication, however, the recommendations in this document focus on the handling of issues related to the publication stage. The recommendations are outlined in relation to four types of concerns: Authorship & Contribution Conflicts, Legal & Regulatory Restrictions, Rigor, Risk. Each of the sections provides a description of the type of situations falling within each category, context on how the concerns may arise, and recommendations on how stakeholders can handle the concerns once the issue is raised to the attention of the data publisher.