Leading science groups urge global accord on Open Data in a Big Data World

A group of four major international science organisations – including ISSC – have [on December 7, 2015] called for global endorsement of an accord to help assure open access to volumes of “big data” that increasingly are the basis of research and policy-making.

This accord is presented as an outcome of “Science International 2015”, the first of a series of annual meetings of four top-level representatives of international science (the International Council for Science – ICSU, the InterAcademy Partnership – IAP, The World Academy of Sciences – TWAS and the International Social Science Council – ISSC) that are designed to represent the global scientific community in the international policy for science arena.

The accord identifies the opportunities and challenges of the data revolution as today’s predominant issue for global science policy. It proposes fundamental principles that should be adopted in responding to them. It adds the distinctive voice of the scientific community to those of governments and inter-governmental bodies that have made the case for open data as a fundamental pre-requisite in maintaining the rigour of scientific inquiry and maximising public benefit from the data revolution in both developed and developing countries. Science International partners will promote discussion and adoption of these principles and their endorsement by their respective members and by other representative bodies of science at national and international levels.

open-data-big-data-world-full-accord

Read the International Social Science Council‘s original post about it here. In line with the mission of OpenDRI, the resulting accord promotes the value of open data in order to further public knowledge, critical understanding, and research related to global need, when leveraged under the common practice of Open Data Principles.

Download the international accord, Open Data in a Big World, here:

Abbreviated Version / Extended Version

 

Banner: World in Shapetiles. Image by Amber Case licensed under CC BY 2.0