The integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) and Research and Clinical Trial Analytics (RCTA) unit, in collaboration with the UVA Library Strategic Technology Partnerships team, have released a new feature in the iTHRIV Portal called the Public Research Data Commons or “Public Commons.”
The new feature allows UVA researchers working in the private iTHRIV Research Data Commons to elect to publish project and dataset descriptions and metadata, making these object summaries available to all iTHRIV Portal users, including members of the public. Files and datasets that meet specific legal and regulatory criteria can also be shared by dataset administrators in the Public Commons. A set of automatic checks are run on the dataset metadata to support researcher compliance with regards to appropriate public sharing. Any dataset file published in the Public Commons generates a record in the UVA Library’s LibraData, supporting broad discovery and generating a DOI or digital object identifier that is sent back to the record in the Commons. This set of features supports research teams in seamless management of research data throughout the lifecycle of the project, from data collection through analysis and results dissemination and supports NIH data sharing policies. A sample NIH Data Sharing Plan leveraging the Public Commons feature is available in the iTHRIV Portal here. Note that the Public Commons also interacts with databases hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Commonwealth Virginia Open Data Portal to surface public datasets for discovery in the iTHRIV Commons alongside public research artifacts.
If you have questions about using the Public Research Data Commons, please contact iTHRIV.
Filed Under: Research