Sharing data publicly

This page is a starting point for making research data openly available. Public sharing needs a bit more planning than routine collaboration, because you need to think about permissions, governance, timing, and where the data should be published.

Key questions before sharing

The OxCIN open data guidance groups the process into four practical questions:

• why should this dataset be shared?
• can it be shared legally, ethically, and contractually?
• how should it be shared so that others can reuse it?
• when should sharing be planned as part of the project lifecycle?

These are good questions to work through before choosing a platform or preparing files for release.

Sharing MR protocols

OxCIN provides an Open MR Protocols resource for sharing scanner protocols and related information. It supports both internal sharing within OxCIN and external sharing through a web interface.

Useful links:

• Open MR Protocols overview
• Open MR Protocols web interface

Useful open research resources

The Open OxCIN community pages bring together the main resources for open research practice at OxCIN, including:

• open MR protocols
• open tasks
• open data
• open analysis
• Git and GitLab guidance
• open access publishing

Start here:

• Open Research at the Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging

For the wider centre context, see:

• Open OxCIN Project

Getting help

If you are unsure whether data can be shared publicly, or want advice on how to prepare and publish it, use the open research resources above first.

If you still need help, contact the Open OxCIMN Ambassadors:

• open@oxcin.ox.ac.uk

See also

• Sharing
• Within the University
• Outside the University (collaborators)
• Data security and governance