Research

Enabling Research Innovation: How COS Supports Open Science

Event: Friday, October 4 @ 1pm ET
Topic: How COS makes it possible for researchers to practice open science

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Open science is transforming the research landscape by promoting greater transparency and rigor in research practices. However, many researchers encounter barriers in adopting these new methods, often due to limited access to the necessary tools and resources. The Center for Open Science (COS) is working to break down these barriers, and this event aims to explore how they do it.

In the first installment of the Supporter Engagement Series, COS will shed light on how optimizing the global research system begins by enhancing the technologies that facilitate open research. This session will feature insights from research reform professionals and active researchers on the value of open research technology infrastructure. Additionally, participants will learn about a major community engagement effort focused on creating shared governance and collaborative development for the Open Science Framework (OSF).

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Why Attend?

This event will be particularly valuable for individuals interested in:

• How digital research tools empower researchers to embrace open science.
• First-hand accounts from researchers in various fields about their experiences practicing open science.
• The intersection between open scholarship and open-source software.
• Funding opportunities to support transformative technologies in the realm of open research.

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Program Schedule

Welcome and Introduction
Terry Foor, Director of Development, Center for Open Science

The Value of an Open Research Process
Brian Nosek, Executive Director, Center for Open Science
Brian will delve into how more transparent and rigorous research processes lead to more trustworthy outcomes. His talk will focus on the relationship between research rigor, credibility, and the role of open research infrastructure.

Open Research in Action
Felipe Vilanova, Ph.D. Candidate, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Clarke Iakovakis, Scholarly Services Librarian and Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
Terry will moderate a discussion with Felipe and Clarke about the practical benefits of the Open Science Framework. They will discuss how the OSF helps researchers implement open practices such as preregistration, sharing data, code, and other research materials.

Strengthening Infrastructure through Community Engagement
Nici Pfeiffer, Chief Product Officer, Center for Open Science
Lenny Teytelman, Founder & President, protocols.io
Nici and Lenny will highlight the challenges and opportunities of open research technology, particularly at the intersection of open research and open-source software development. They will also discuss COS’s efforts to engage with community partners to improve the OSF through shared governance.

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This event will provide a comprehensive look at the power of open science, offering insights into how digital tools, community collaboration, and open-source software are reshaping the research ecosystem.

For more information and registration, click here.

This is a friendly reminder about the upcoming REINFORCING Open and Responsible Research and Innovation (ORRI) Forum, hosted by the REINFORCING project on October 7 and 8, 2024, in Vienna, Austria. The conference will be held both, online and on-site with online activities taking place only on October 7.

The forum is set to explore and discuss innovative ORRI practices, and work towards establishing a solid foundation for the successful mainstreaming of ORRI. Find detailed information of the event and agenda here. Stay tuned, as we will be announcing our speakers for the event throughout this week!

Call for ORRI Practices

RR is delighted to announce the extension of the Call for ORRI practices until September 12. With this initiative we aim to provide you with the opportunity to showcase your ORRI practice and connect with a global network of ORRI practitioners. You may apply by submitting your ORRI practice through this form by September 12. Find more information about this call here.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to present their practices online (on October 7) or onsite (on October, 7 or 8) during one of the working sessions of the Forum. The selected ORRI practices will be disclosed during the week of September 16th.

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain visibility and recognition for your innovative initiatives within the ORRI Community!

Please feel free to contact REINFORCING if you have any doubt or question at info@reinforcing.eu

Introduction: Open Science (OS) represents a paradigm shift in how research is conducted and shared, promoting transparency, accessibility, and inclusivity across all stages of the scientific process. By embracing principles such as Open Access (OA), FAIR Data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), Open Code, and Citizen Science (CS), OS aims to democratize knowledge, allowing for broader participation and collaboration in research. However, while the potential benefits of OS are widely touted, there has been limited systematic research on the academic impacts of these practices. To address this gap, a recent scoping review synthesizes evidence on the academic impacts of Open Science, examining its effects on areas such as citations, research quality, efficiency, equity, and reproducibility.

Methodology: The study employed the PRISMA scoping review methodology to analyze 489 studies related to various aspects of Open Science. The review focused on the academic impacts of OS practices, intentionally excluding societal and economic impacts. Key areas of interest included Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Code/Software, Open Evaluation, and Citizen Science (CS). The analysis sought to uncover patterns, both positive and negative, in the academic impact of OS, as well as identify gaps in the existing literature.

Key Findings

1. Open Access (OA): A Major Focus: Open Access emerged as the most extensively studied aspect of Open Science, with 233 relevant studies identified. The primary focus of these studies was the Open Access Citation Advantage (OACA), which posits that OA publications tend to receive higher citation counts due to their increased accessibility. Of the 160 studies that specifically investigated citations, 47.8% reported an OACA, while 27.6% found no advantage, and 23.9% identified an advantage only in specific contexts such as certain journals, disciplines, or timeframes. However, the review highlights significant methodological heterogeneity in how these studies measure both citation impact and Open Access status, complicating the interpretation of results.
2. Equity in Open Access Publishing: Another major concern within the OA literature is equity, particularly regarding the financial barriers posed by Article Processing Charges (APCs). APCs have been shown to exacerbate existing inequities in global publishing, disproportionately affecting researchers from low- and middle-income countries. While OA improves access to research for readers, it often creates new barriers for researchers seeking to publish their work, leading to stratification in the academic publishing landscape.
3. Preprints and Efficiency: Preprints, which allow researchers to share non-peer-reviewed manuscripts publicly, have become an important aspect of OS, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The review identified 14 studies on preprints, with most reporting positive impacts on the efficiency of scholarly communication. Preprints were also associated with increased citation counts, although the review cautions that selection bias may overestimate the quality and impact of preprinted research.
4. Citizen Science (CS): Broadening Participation: Citizen Science, which involves the active participation of non-professional scientists in research, was the second most studied area of OS, with 129 relevant studies. CS has been praised for its potential to democratize science by involving diverse communities in the research process. However, the review found mixed evidence regarding the academic impact of CS. While some studies reported positive effects on research quality, others highlighted challenges related to the validation and reproducibility of citizen-generated data.
5. Open/FAIR Data: Enhancing Reusability: FAIR data principles, which aim to make data more reusable, were the focus of 67 studies. The review found that Open/FAIR Data practices generally had positive impacts on research efficiency, transparency, and reproducibility. However, significant barriers remain, particularly in terms of the skills, resources, and infrastructure required to effectively share and reuse data.
6. Barriers to Academic Impact: Across all aspects of Open Science, the review identified several key barriers to maximizing academic impact. These include a lack of necessary skills and resources, as well as inadequate infrastructure for effectively sharing, reusing, and building on existing research. Additionally, the review highlighted unintended negative impacts of OS practices, particularly in terms of equity, diversity, and inclusion. For example, while Open Access improves access for readers, it may exacerbate disparities in publishing opportunities for researchers from underrepresented regions or institutions.

Implications for Future Research and Policy: The scoping review underscores the need for more nuanced, context-specific research on the academic impacts of Open Science. While the majority of studies report positive or mixed outcomes, significant gaps remain, particularly in understanding the causal pathways that link OS practices to academic impact. The review also calls for greater attention to the unintended consequences of Open Science, particularly in terms of equity and inclusion. Policymakers and institutions should focus on addressing these barriers, ensuring that the benefits of OS are equitably distributed across the global research community.

Open Science holds great promise for enhancing the accessibility, transparency, and inclusivity of research. However, realizing these benefits requires concerted efforts to overcome the barriers identified in this review. By fostering the necessary skills, resources, and infrastructure, the academic community can ensure that Open Science fulfills its potential to transform research for the better.

Klebel, T., Traag, V., Grypari, I., Stoy, L., & Ross-Hellauer, T. (2024, July 21). The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ptjub

On Tuesday, September 10, 2024, the DIAMAS and PALOMERA projects will jointly host a webinar from 14:00 to 15:30 CEST, designed to engage learned societies and provide insights into how best to support their publishing operations. This online event, held on Zoom, aims to explore the challenges and opportunities facing learned society publishers in the realm of Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing. Interested participants can register through the provided link, with Zoom access details to be sent via email prior to the event.

Diamond Open Access and the Role of Learned Societies

Learned society journals are the embodiment of community-led scholarly publishing, serving diverse academic communities, cultures, and languages. As such, they occupy a central role in Diamond Open Access, a publishing model that is free for both readers and authors. Through journals, books, and book series, learned societies have long been at the heart of the academic publishing ecosystem, and their experiences with Open Access (OA) publishing come with both significant challenges and notable benefits.

The European DIAMAS project, with its mission to foster Diamond OA publishing across Europe, has been at the forefront of addressing the challenges that learned society publishers face in scholarly communication. DIAMAS is a collaboration of over 20 partners from across Europe, representing a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including universities, learned societies, publishers, and funders. The project seeks to understand and mitigate the difficulties these publishers encounter as they navigate the OA landscape.

The DIAMAS and PALOMERA Projects: Insights and Support

DIAMAS has been actively gathering evidence across Europe to identify pain points in OA publishing. A recent report sheds light on how Diamond publishers fund their operations and what they need to ensure sustainability moving forward. Another report outlines the key characteristics of institutional publishing across the European Research Area. These findings will be shared during the webinar.

The financial sustainability of Diamond OA publishing is a critical focus for DIAMAS, which has developed tools and knowledge to support publishers. The PALOMERA project, which concentrates on policy alignment for OA books, has similarly investigated the funding aspect of policies for OA book publishing. PALOMERA, with over 15 partners from across Europe, represents a wide range of stakeholders involved in OA book publishing, including learned societies.

During the webinar, participants will gain insights into revenue streams for Diamond OA publishing, explore cost-saving opportunities in OA journal and book publishing, and consider the complex relationships between learned society publishers, their host organizations, and their members or subscribers. DIAMAS and PALOMERA are eager to learn how they can better support learned societies, particularly in light of their financial constraints.

Webinar Objectives and Participation

Key questions to be addressed in the webinar include:

• How can learned societies share resources or services to reduce costs?
• Which funding models are proving successful, and which are becoming outdated?

This session offers a valuable opportunity for learned society publishers to engage with DIAMAS, PALOMERA, and their peers, exchanging ideas on how to resource Diamond OA publishing and explore potential collaborations to pool resources.

Event Details:

• Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2024
• Time: 14:00 – 15:30 CEST
• Platform: Zoom (Registration required)

The event recording and presentations will be made available on the DIAMAS and PALOMERA websites following the webinar. Personal data for this event is processed in accordance with the privacy statement for TSV Publication Forum’s events.

For further information, please contact:

• Mikael Laakso: mikael.laakso[at]tsv.fi
• Janne Pölönen: janne.polonen[at]tsv.fi

For more information and registration, visit Publication Forum.

The REINFORCING project is excited to announce a call for ORRI practices in preparation for the upcoming REINFORCING Open and Responsible Research and Innovation Forum, taking place on October 7 and 8, 2024, in Vienna, Austria.

This initiative is an opportunity for participants to showcase their innovative ORRI practices and engage with an international network of ORRI practitioners. You are invited to submit your ORRI practice and contribute to this collaborative effort to promote open and responsible research and innovation.

What is an ORRI Practice?

An ORRI practice refers to an innovative approach in which various actors collaborate to develop research, services, or products that are ethically sound, sustainable, and socially beneficial. We are particularly interested in practices that operate within research and innovation ecosystems, organizations, research groups, or networks. These practices should provide mechanisms, instruments, or tools that can inspire and guide others, enabling them to adapt these approaches to their unique contexts.

How to Submit Your ORRI Practice

To participate in this call, submit your ORRI practice by completing a brief template designed to highlight your work. The submission deadline is September 9, 2024.

How to Participate in the ORRI Forum

Selected participants will have the opportunity to present their practices either online (October 7) or onsite (October 7 or 8) during one of the working sessions at the Forum. The chosen ORRI practices will be announced during the week of September 16, 2024.

Benefits of Participating

By submitting your ORRI practice, you not only gain a chance to present at the Forum but also have the opportunity to be featured on the upcoming ORRI Platform developed by REINFORCING. Additionally, your practice could be included in the ORRI map, which will serve as a comprehensive geographical directory of EU ORRI organizations.

Don’t miss this chance to gain visibility and recognition for your work within the ORRI community! The deadline for submissions is September 9, 2024.

For more information or questions, please reach out to info@reinforcing.eu.

More info can be found here.

About REINFORCING

REINFORCING is a 50-month project, funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe R&I Framework Programme, aiming at mainstreaming Open and Responsible Research and Innovation across Europe. To achieve this, REINFORCING will deliver support, resources and cascading grants to territories and institutions willing to embrace the ORRI approach for the first time or to strengthen their ORRI processes and practices.

Research is a cornerstone of societal progress, driving innovation and informing public policy, healthcare, education, and many other critical sectors. However, the integrity of research—the accuracy, reliability, and honesty in the conduct and reporting of research—is essential to ensure that it fulfills its purpose of advancing knowledge and benefiting society. This is where the role of the state becomes crucial. Governments and state institutions have a significant responsibility in promoting and safeguarding research integrity and in ensuring effective research assessment.

The Importance of Research Integrity

Research integrity refers to the adherence to ethical principles and professional standards in research activities. It encompasses honesty in reporting, transparency in methodology, accountability for results, and respect for intellectual property and human participants. When research lacks integrity, it not only undermines public trust but can also lead to harmful consequences, such as the spread of misinformation, wasted resources, and flawed policies.

The State’s Role in Upholding Research Integrity

1. Establishing and Enforcing Guidelines: One of the primary ways the state can ensure research integrity is by establishing clear guidelines and regulations. National frameworks for research ethics provide the foundation for researchers to understand and uphold integrity in their work. Governments can enact laws or create independent bodies to oversee adherence to these standards. For instance, many countries have national ethics committees that review research proposals to ensure compliance with ethical norms.
2. Providing Education and Training: Beyond regulation, states can promote research integrity through education. By funding and supporting training programs for researchers at all levels, from students to senior scientists, the state can ensure that the principles of research integrity are deeply ingrained in the academic and research culture. This can include mandatory courses on research ethics, guidelines on proper data management, and best practices in publishing.
3. Supporting Research Integrity Offices and Ombudsmen: Many universities and research institutions have offices dedicated to maintaining research integrity, often supported by state funding. These offices can investigate allegations of misconduct, provide advice on ethical dilemmas, and promote a culture of integrity within their institutions. Additionally, the state can establish independent research ombudsmen to provide oversight and ensure that cases of misconduct are handled fairly and transparently.
4. Fostering Transparency and Accountability: States can also promote research integrity by requiring transparency in research processes. This includes the open sharing of data, methodologies, and findings, as well as ensuring that research is subject to peer review and public scrutiny. Transparency acts as a safeguard against misconduct and helps ensure that research can be replicated and validated by others.

Research Assessment: A Key Element of State Responsibility

The state’s role doesn’t end with ensuring research integrity; it also extends to assessing research outcomes. Effective research assessment is essential for evaluating the quality and impact of research, guiding funding decisions, and shaping future research agendas. Here are some ways the state can contribute to robust research assessment:

1. Developing Fair and Comprehensive Metrics: States are often involved in developing and endorsing metrics for evaluating research performance. While traditional metrics, like publication counts and citation rates, are commonly used, they are increasingly seen as inadequate for assessing the broader impact of research. The state can lead efforts to create more comprehensive and fair evaluation systems that consider not only academic outputs but also societal, economic, and environmental impacts.
2. Supporting Diverse Research Outputs: To foster innovation and creativity, states can recognize and reward a wider range of research outputs, beyond peer-reviewed journal articles. This could include patents, policy briefs, public engagement activities, and contributions to open-source projects. By broadening the scope of what is valued in research assessment, the state can encourage researchers to engage in work that has a more direct impact on society.
3. Ensuring Equity in Research Funding: The state plays a key role in ensuring that research assessment processes are fair and equitable. This involves creating funding systems that do not disproportionately favor certain disciplines, institutions, or demographics. For example, state policies can help mitigate biases in research funding that may disadvantage early-career researchers, underrepresented groups, or research areas that do not traditionally receive high levels of funding.
4. Promoting Long-Term Impact: States can encourage research assessment systems that focus on long-term impact rather than short-term outputs. This shift in focus can help promote research that addresses complex societal challenges, such as climate change, public health, and social inequality, which often require sustained effort over many years. By prioritizing long-term impact, the state can align research activities with broader public interests.

Challenges and Opportunities

While the state has a critical role to play in ensuring research integrity and assessment, there are challenges that must be addressed. Balancing regulation with academic freedom is one such challenge. Excessive state intervention in research can stifle creativity and independence, which are essential for scientific progress. Therefore, state policies must strike a balance between oversight and autonomy, ensuring that integrity is upheld without undermining the freedom of inquiry.

Another challenge is the global nature of research. In an interconnected world, research often crosses national boundaries, making it difficult for any single state to enforce standards. International collaboration and agreements are therefore crucial for ensuring research integrity and coherent assessment practices globally. States can play a leadership role in fostering international dialogue and cooperation on these issues.

Navigating the Balance: State Oversight and Academic Freedom

The state has a vital role in safeguarding research integrity and ensuring effective research assessment. By establishing regulations, supporting education, fostering transparency, and promoting fair assessment practices, governments can help create a research environment that is ethical, accountable, and aligned with the public good. However, to be effective, state interventions must be carefully balanced to protect academic freedom and promote global collaboration. As research continues to play an increasingly important role in addressing societal challenges, the state’s role in ensuring its integrity and impact will remain essential.

Photo via SingleHealth DukeNUS

The retraction of flawed research papers, while essential for scientific integrity, is not enough to prevent the spread of bad science. Retractions have skyrocketed, reaching nearly 14,000 in 2022, yet faulty studies still influence the literature. A key issue is that papers citing retracted work often remain unaddressed, allowing erroneous data to propagate. Despite the growing problem, there is no systematic method for alerting authors when studies they cited are retracted.

To combat this, we need large-scale mechanisms to halt the spread of errors. The academic system, driven by publications and citations, often overlooks dubious work, and unscrupulous practices like paper mills exploit this system. Even reputable publishers may inadvertently contribute by prioritizing volume over quality.

Scientists, publishers, and institutions must work together to maintain the integrity of research. Tools like PubPeer and the Problematic Paper Screener (PPS) can flag suspicious studies, while RetractoBot and the Feet of Clay Detector can identify retracted references. However, these efforts need widespread adoption and integration into editorial processes.

Publishers should take a proactive role by routinely screening manuscripts for plagiarism, doctored data, and unreliable references. They must also improve retraction practices, ensuring retracted articles are clearly marked and regularly checking for overlooked retractions. Additionally, the scientific community should value contributions to correcting the literature, and funders and universities should prioritize solid science over sheer publication numbers.

Ultimately, stopping bad science from spreading requires accountability, preventive measures, and collaboration from all involved to uphold the credibility of scientific research.

Nature 632, 977-979 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02747-1

Original article via Nature By Guillaume Cabanac

Illustration: Phil Wheeler

The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences have extended the application deadline for the prestigious National Prize for Open Research Data (ORD Prize) 2024 until August 31, 2024, 5:00 PM CET. This prize aims to recognize individual researchers and research teams for their innovative practices in the field of Open Research Data (ORD), promoting the transition to open research practices and supporting transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration in the scientific community.

Promoting Open Research Practices

Launched in April 2024, the National ORD Prize is part of the National Action Plan “Open Research Data,” an initiative designed to advance the National Strategy for Open Research Data. By encouraging practices that make research data openly accessible, the prize supports scientific progress and allows society to benefit more directly from research findings.

Who Can Apply?

The prize is open to researchers at all career stages and across all scientific disciplines, working at Swiss research institutions such as universities, federal institutes, and universities of applied sciences. Early-career researchers are also encouraged to participate. Applications can be submitted individually or through nominations by others, making this year’s competition even more inclusive.

New Focus Areas

This year, the competition introduces two thematic focus areas:

1. Collaborative and/or interdisciplinary reuse of research data
2. Educational and/or outreach activities related to the reuse of research data

The jury will award several ORD prizes, with a total prize pool of CHF 21,000.

Submit Your Application or Nominate Others

Researchers wishing to apply can submit their entries through the application form. Those interested in nominating others for the prize can do so via the nomination form.

For more detailed information, including prize regulations, visit the ORD Prize 2024 page.

For further inquiries, please contact Olivia Denk, Specialist for Open Science focusing on Open Research Data, at +41 31 306 92 11 or via email at olivia.denk@akademien-schweiz.ch.

Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to and be recognized for advancing open research practices in Switzerland!

In today’s digital world, data has become one of the most valuable resources for organizations. From businesses and governments to researchers and nonprofits, data drives decision-making, innovation, and growth. However, with the increasing reliance on data comes the critical need to manage it effectively and responsibly. This is where data stewardship comes into play. But what exactly is data stewardship, and why is it so important?

What is Data Stewardship?

Data stewardship refers to the management and oversight of an organization’s data assets to ensure they are properly collected, stored, maintained, and used. A data steward is responsible for ensuring that data is accurate, accessible, secure, and compliant with relevant regulations and policies. Unlike data governance, which involves setting the overall policies and standards for data management, data stewardship is more hands-on, focusing on the implementation and enforcement of these policies on a day-to-day basis.

A data steward acts as a custodian of data, overseeing its lifecycle from creation to disposal, ensuring that data remains of high quality and is used ethically. This role often involves coordinating with different departments to ensure that data is consistent and accessible across the organization while maintaining privacy and security standards.

Key Responsibilities of Data Stewards

Data stewards play a critical role in ensuring that an organization’s data is reliable and trustworthy. Their responsibilities typically include:

• Data Quality: Ensuring that data is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. This involves regular audits, cleaning, and validation processes to maintain high data standards.
• Data Access and Security: Managing who can access data, ensuring that sensitive information is protected, and implementing appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access.
• Data Documentation and Metadata Management: Creating and maintaining documentation that describes data sources, structure, and usage, which helps other users understand the data and its context.
• Compliance and Ethical Use: Ensuring that data practices comply with relevant laws and regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and promoting the ethical use of data throughout the organization.
• Collaboration and Communication: Working with various departments to ensure that data is managed consistently across the organization and that stakeholders are informed about best practices for data usage.

5 Types of Data Stewards

Every organization is different when it comes to business processes, IT systems, data sources, and policies. Therefore, different types of data stewards exist that might focus on data in specific contexts. These different types of data stewards can be divided into five categories.

George Firican from lightsondata.com did a perfect job dividing data stewards into these five different categories. Below you’ll find our interpretation of his beneficial video.

Domain data steward

Also known as a data object data steward or subject area data steward, this data steward is primarily responsible for the master and reference data within one business data domain (e.g., Customer Data). They are the subject matter expert of their specific data domain.

Domain data stewards can work with and define things like company data hierarchy, finance data, addresses, industry codes, and contact information. They need to have strong executive sponsorship to ensure the rules and processes they put in place are followed diligently (as is for data governance in general). They also need to reach across lines between departments and responsibilities and interact closely with a “cross-departmental team of subject matter experts.”

This is one of the most common types of data stewardship. The people who assume this position are often in a managerial or business analyst role. It’s hard to find volunteers from these fields because the job is time-consuming, and people often don’t want to do it. They also need to communicate often and require the strong executive sponsorship we mentioned earlier, making this one of the more difficult data steward types to implement.

Functional data steward

Depending on the company’s size, these data stewards will only manage critical data (reference, master, and transactional) related to one particular business function (e.g., sales or marketing). They will be responsible for the data’s quality, use, and meaning within this function. They will also help define data governance rules and policies for that function.

A functional data steward’s job can get somewhat complicated when asked to interact with data that crosses over multiple departments. The rules and hierarchies can conflict and muddle the items the business data steward is working on.

A business data steward or data governance program should always be enterprise-wide. A department-specific one will inevitably establish rules that only apply to that department and lead to inter-departmental data confusion.

Process data steward

A process data steward manages all data involved with one business process. They will help improve the process by working in all the data domains that the process involves. Because they are working in multiple domains, they will need reliable cross-process governance to ensure their data element’s reliability and accuracy. This also means that they regularly interact with the functional and domain data stewards to share knowledge about specific data.

Technical data steward

Technical data stewards are also referred to as System Data Stewards because they operate with the data in one or more IT systems. Someone like an enterprise data architect, MDM practitioner, or data modeler would fall under this category.

Within their specific system, they will understand how the data is created, stored, transformed, and moved within and between technical systems.

Technical data stewards also work closely with functional and domain data stewards to populate the data dictionary, business glossary, and data catalog.

They also work with data custodians to implement data governance decisions within the IT data systems.

Lead data steward

This head data stewardship role leads a team of other stewards for a specific data domain. They are the guiding light for that particular domain. All the other stewards report to and perform tasks for them. Lead data stewards can also approve corrections to master data or changes to reference data.

They provide leadership, direction, management, change, advocacy for that domain’s data and metadata.

Why is Data Stewardship Important?

The importance of data stewardship cannot be overstated. As organizations increasingly depend on data to drive their operations, the need for effective data management becomes more crucial. Here are a few key reasons why data stewardship is essential:

1. Ensuring Data Integrity: Data is only valuable if it is accurate and reliable. Data stewardship ensures that data remains of high quality, free from errors, and fit for its intended purpose. This is especially important in industries like healthcare, finance, and scientific research, where decisions based on faulty data can have serious consequences.
2. Protecting Privacy and Security: With the rise in data breaches and cyberattacks, safeguarding sensitive information is a top priority for organizations. Data stewardship helps protect data from unauthorized access, ensuring that privacy and security protocols are strictly followed. This is vital for maintaining customer trust and avoiding legal repercussions.
3. Compliance with Regulations: Many industries are subject to strict data regulations that govern how data must be collected, stored, and used. Data stewardship ensures that an organization remains compliant with these regulations, reducing the risk of fines, penalties, and reputational damage.
4. Supporting Data-Driven Decision Making: High-quality data enables organizations to make informed, data-driven decisions. Data stewardship ensures that decision-makers have access to the accurate and relevant data they need to guide strategy, optimize operations, and drive innovation.
5. Fostering Ethical Data Use: As organizations collect more data on individuals, ethical considerations become increasingly important. Data stewardship helps promote the responsible and ethical use of data, ensuring that it is used in ways that respect individual rights and do not cause harm.

The Future of Data Stewardship

As data continues to grow in volume and complexity, the role of data stewards will become even more critical. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics will require even greater attention to data quality, security, and ethics. Organizations that invest in strong data stewardship practices will be better positioned to harness the full potential of their data while minimizing risks.

Data stewardship is the backbone of effective data management. It ensures that data remains accurate, secure, and compliant, allowing organizations to leverage their data responsibly and effectively. As the value of data continues to rise, the importance of data stewardship will only continue to grow. Organizations that prioritize data stewardship will not only protect their data assets but also gain a competitive advantage in the data-driven world.

Photo and information via Ataccama