Audit and certification – The Data Seal of Approval

http://www.datasealofapproval.org

The Data Seal of Approval (DSA) are formulated in 16 quality guidelines for the application and verification of quality aspects with regard to creation, storage and (re)use of digital research data. The DSA is of interest to researchers and institutions that create digital research files, to organizations that archive research files, and to users of research data.

The objectives of the Data Seal of Approval are to safeguard data, to ensure high quality and to guide reliable management of research data for the future without requiring the implementation of new standards, regulations or high costs.

The Data Seal of Approval 

• Gives researchers the assurance that their research results will be stored in a reliable manner and can be reused
• Provides research sponsors with the guarantee that research results will remain available for reuse
• Enables researchers, in a reliable manner, to assess research data to be reused
• Allows data repositories to archive and distribute research data efficiently

The guidelines serve as a basis for granting a ‘Data Seal of Approval’. The criteria for assigning the Seal of Approval to data are in accordance with, and fit in with, national and international guidelines for digital data archiving.

The primary concerns of the Data Seal of Approval are digital objects and databases in a repository, i.e. the first sequence. The guidelines are also focused on the Full Lifecycle Actions and the Sequential Actions sequences (see table). The DSA does not deal with the stage Transform in the Sequential Action sequence nor does it deal with the Occasional Actions sequence.