MacKenzie Smith. "Data Governance: Where Technology and Policy Collide." In Research Data Management: Practical Strategies for Information Professionals (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2014. 436 pages. ISBN 9781557536648): 45-59.
Author MacKenzie Smith is University Librarian at the University of California, Davis and has a strong background in information technology and digital library issues. In this chapter she addresses a number of governance and policy issues related to the management of data resources. These include legal and policy issues; attribution and citation requirements; archives and preservation; discovery and provenance metadata; data schema and ontologies for discovery and sharing; and access to infrastructure for data analysis.
The legal issues can be very complex. Data that is public and shareable in one country might be under copyright in another. Privacy and confidentiality laws may differ as well. Another source of confusion includes the definition of commercial versus non-commercial use. Technological issues are also challenging. Software that was used to create and analyze data must be available if the data are to be reusable. Metadata should be standardized and easily interpreted. The need to have data management plans is noted, and Smith ends by making a number of recommendations regarding data governance.
Recommendations include the need to have clear statements of policy and enforcement practices; an easy to use and trustworthy infrastructure; reward mechanisms for researchers who share their data; clarification of stakeholders' rights and responsibilities; and a harmonization of data usage agreements.
