An analysis of institutional policies and responsibilities in international research collaborations: Data integrity, management, and sharing

Abstract:

Under the influence of COVID-19, researchers will be furthermore expected to utilize Cloud-based technology and share extensive knowledge, information, and data with their collaborators. In order to create more secure structure and mechanisms, researchers and stakeholders need to recognize emerging data integrity, management, and sharing challenges such as cloud cybertheft, power outages, solar storms, and other influences.

This study examine and compare the institutional policies and responsibilities on research data integration, management, sharing. The findings of this study will help geoscientists, institutional leaders, and policy makers refine policies and practices in international research collaborations.

This study is based on examining the existing international partnership agreement templates of the 13 American universities defined as “Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity” in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The research data are collected from publicly available sources. This study applies the policy analysis to compare and analyze the templates through the following four conceptual frameworks: 1) research collaboration and data, 2) legal and regulatory, 3) research integrity oversight, and 4) graduate student and postdoctoral fellow training.

Preliminary data suggest the templates defined procedures to conduct international research; however, they don’t describe guidelines on research data, legal and regulatory, and research integrity oversight. The results of this study indicate that organizational roles and commitments need to be clarified to refine institutional policies and responsibilities in advancing data integration, management and sharing technologies and infrastructures.

The study results would be utilized to build strong foundations for all stakeholders to understand emerging challenges on collaborative research data integrity, management, and sharing in international research collaborations.