The Beijing Declaration on Research Data
Preamble
Grand challenges related to the environment, human health, and sustainability confront science and society.
Understanding and mitigating these challenges in a rapidly changing environment require datai to be FAIR
(Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and as open as possible on a global basis. Scientificdiscovery must not be impeded unnecessarily by fragmented and closed systems, and the stewardship of researchdata should avoid defaulting to the traditional, proprietary approach of scholarly publishing. Therefore, theadoption of new policies and principles, coordinated and implemented globally, is necessary for research data
and the associated infrastructures, tools, services, and practices. The time to act on the basis of solid policies forresearch data is now.
The Beijing Declaration is intended as a timely statement of core principles to encourage global cooperation,
especially for public research data. It builds on and acknowledges the many national and international efforts
that have been undertaken in the policy and technical spheres on a worldwide basis.ii These major contributions
are listed in the Appendix.
Several emergent global trends justify and precipitate this declaration of principles:➢ Massive global challenges require multilateral and cross-disciplinary cooperation and the broad reuse ofdata to improve coherence concerning recent UN landmark agreements, such as the Paris Climate
Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Plant Treaty, the World Humanitarian Summit,and others. The comprehensive agendas for action provided by these agreements requires access to andreuse of all kinds of data.
➢ Research and problem-solving, especially addressing the SDG challenges, are increasingly complex anddriven by ‘big data’, resulting in the need to combine and reuse very diverse data resources acrossmultiple fields. This poses an enormous challenge in the interoperability of data and responsible
stewardship, with full respect for privacy.
➢ Rapid advances in the technologies that generate and analyze data pose major challenges concerning
data volume, harmonization, management, sharing, and reuse. At the same time, emerging technologies(including machine learning) offer new opportunities that require access to reusable data available indistributed, yet interoperable, international data resources.
➢ Changing norms and ethics encourage high-quality research through greater transparency, promote thereuse of data, and improve trustworthiness through the production of verifiable and reproducible
research results. Increasing the openness of research data is efficient, improving the public return on
investment, and generating positive externalities.
➢ Open Science initiatives are emerging globally, including in less economically developed countries.
There consequently are opportunities for these countries to take advantage of technologicaldevelopments to develop a greater share in scientific production. Without determined action, there isalso a risk that the divide in scientific production will widen.
In September 2019, CODATA and its Data Policy Committee convened in Beijing to discuss current data policy
issues and developed a set of data policies adapted to the new Open Science paradigm. The Declaration proposed
below is the result of that meeting and is now put forward for public review.

iIn this document we deliberately use the word data very broadly, to comprise data (stricto sensu) and theecosystem of digital things that relate to data, including metadata, software and algorithms, as well as physicalsamples and analogue artefacts (and the digital representations and metadata relating to these things).
ii
Europe has been an early mover with its ambitious plans for a European Open Science Cloud, which also has
prompted discussions and declarations in many other countries. A collection of major statements of policy
principles is listed in the Appendix.

1

The Beijing Declaration on Research Data
The Beijing Declaration supports international efforts to make research data as open as possible and only asclosed as necessary. It seeks to make data and metadata Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable(FAIR)iii on a global basis and, wherever possible, automatically processable by machines. Although thisDeclaration is relevant mostly for research data that are generated through public funding, there are also
instances in which privately funded data are made broadly available, in which case these principles would alsoapply. In addition, data not initially generated for research may be used in research at a later stage. The Beijing
Declaration endorses many existing research data policies and management practices that have been promoted
by previous declarations and statements, and they are included as references in the Appendix. The participants inthe September 2019 policy meeting have produced the following set of ten principles:1.

Research is increasingly driven by data that are beyond human processing alone. Researchers therefore
should have access to diverse, trustworthy, and reusable sources of data that are readily available andmachine actionable. Data stewardship capacity building and comprehensive policies that enable thecreation, dissemination, preservation, and above all the global reuse of data and information are
essential, including sustained support for the required infrastructure and expertise.
2. Research data have global public good characteristics. A pure public good cannot be depleted by use(also called non-rivalrous) and cannot be excluded from use. Research data cannot be depleted, but can be
restricted in use, although exclusion of reuse by others can be very inefficient and controversial, especially
if the data are generated by public funding. The value of research data increases with use.
3. Publicly funded research data should be findable online to build an international data commons.
Findable data require comprehensive metadata descriptions and persistent identifier tags, because data thatcannot be easily located by potential users—whether by humans or machines—are of limited value.
Together, principles three to seven result in “FAIR” data (data that are Findable, Accessible,Interoperable, and Reusable)—both for machines and humans.
4. Publicly funded research data are, by default, in the public interest and should be accessible to thegreatest extent possible for international reuse. They were created or collected on behalf of the publicthat paid for them, and thus should be as open as possible and only as closed as necessary. This is evenmore important in cases where the data relate to issues covered by the UN landmark agreements.
5. Publicly funded research data should be interoperable, and preferably without further manipulation orconversion, to facilitate their broad reuse in scientific research.iv Software, instruments, and data formats
should be well-documented and should not impose any proprietary lock-in that restricts reuse. Data should
be described with rich metadata and should use community-recognized terminologies to maximize
interoperability and reuse.
6. Despite strong reasons for making research data as open as possible, there are legitimate reasons torestrict access to and reuse of data, including interests of national security, law enforcement, privacy,
confidentiality, intellectual property, and indigenous data governance, among others. Restrictions shouldhave an express justification and research data otherwise should be open by default on a global basis. If
the data need to be closed, an effort should be made to provide responsible and proportionately controlled
access.
7. National legislation that exempts research data from copyright or other intellectual property (IP)protections is one way to enable and support reuse of public data. Another way is for researchers to choose
a minimally restrictive and voluntary common-use licensev.
8. Funders of academic and applied research should require the submission of adequate data stewardshipplans, including clear guidelines for the provision of long-term availability, accessibility, and conditions
for reuse. Open data policies should be accompanied by commensurate penalties for noncompliance as well
as appropriate incentives.
9. Activities that address the “divide in scientific production” between less economically advanced
regions and those economies with advanced research infrastructures should include access to publicly
funded research data and related information. The wider deployment and access to advanced technicalresearch infrastructures is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to reduce the divide.
10. Research data policies should promote the principles in this Declaration and be coordinatedinternationally. They should be implemented with clear policy wording and guidelines, specific funding,and a commitment to monitor their impact with the overall objective of building a global FAIR datacommons.

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Wilkinson et al 2015, DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2016.18
Interoperability of data has technical, semantic, and legal components—all of which need to be addressed
successfully to make the data fully reusable.
v
Common-use licenses (such as a Creative Commons CC-BY license or CC0 public domain waiver) preserve
some ownership rights while providing access to and reusability of the data. Giving appropriate credit to data
providers is essential for promoting data sharing.
iv3

Appendix
A Selection of Previous Statements and Declarations of Principles on Research Data
Policy1.

Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/aboutus/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018 and a set of supporting guidelines
including one for Management of Data and Information in Researchhttps://www.nhmrc.gov.au/file/14359/download?token=0FwepbdZ
2. Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. The Max Planck Society.
22 October 2003. Available at: https://openaccess.mpg.de/67605/berlin_declaration_engl.pdf/
3. Budapest Open Access Initiative. Open Society Foundations. 14 February 2002. Available at:https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read/
4. CARE Principles of Indigenous Data Governance https://www.gida-global.org/care
5. Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) Data Sharing Principles in DevelopingCountries. Data Sharing Principles in Developing Countries. CODATA. 30 July 2015. Available at:https://zenodo.org/record/22117#.XYxiL0YzY2w
6. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic andSocial Committee and the Committee of the Region, “Open data: An engine for innovation, growth andtransparent governance. European Commission. 12 December 2011. Available athttps://ehron.jrc.ec.europa.eu/sites/ehron/files/documents/public/2011.ec_communication_open_data__engine_for_innovation_growth_and_transparent_governance.pdf
7. Concordat on Open Research Data. (2016). Higher Education Funding Council for England, ResearchCouncils UK, Universities UK, The Wellcome Trust. Available at:https://www.ukri.org/files/legacy/documents/concordatonopenresearchdata-pdf/
8. Data Sharing Principles in Developing Countries. CODATA. 18 August 2014. Available at:https://zenodo.org/record/22117#.XRT9NehKhZg/
9. Declarations in Support of OA (Open Access). Available at:
http://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/tag/oa.declarations
10. Denton Declaration: An Open Data Manifesto. University of North Texas. 22 May 2012. Available at:https://openaccess.unt.edu/denton-declaration/
11. EU Regulation on Copernicus Data, 2014. European Commission. 2014. Available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2014.122.01.0044.01.ENG.
12. Executive Office of the President, U.S. Open Data Action Plan. The White House. 9 May 2014. Available athttps://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/us_open_data_action_plan.pdf
13. Executive Order -- Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information. TheWhite House. 9 May 2013. Available at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-pressoffice/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readable-new-default-government14. FAIR Principles. (2016). GO FAIR. Available at: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
15. G-8 Open data charter. UK Government. 18 June 2013. Available athttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter
16. G8 Open Data Charter. UK Cabinet Office. 18 June 2013. Available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter/
17. Gates Foundation Policy on Open Access Research. BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION OPEN
ACCESS POLICY. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 1 January 2015. Available athttps://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/General-Information/Open-Access-Policy
18. GEO Data Sharing Principles Implementation. The GEOSS Data Sharing Principles. Group of Earth
Observations. 2014. Available at http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss_dsp.shtml
19. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Data Sharing Agreement. New approaches to datalicensing and endorsement. GBIF. 22 September 2014. Available at https://www.gbif.org/news/82363/newapproaches-to-data-licensing-and-endorsement
20. GODAN Statement of Purpose (2013). GODAN. 2013. Available at
http://www.godan.info/about/statement-of-purpose/
21. Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020. European
Commission. 11 December 2013. Available at https://oerknowledgecloud.org/content/guidelines-openaccess-scientific-publications-and-research-data-horizon-2020-04

22. ICSU Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science (CFRS), Advisory Note on“Sharing Scientific Data with a Focus on Developing Countries. International Science Council. 2011.
Available at https://council.science/cms/2017/04/ICSU_CFRS_Advisory_Note_Data_Sharing.pdf
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https://www.colciencias.gov.co/sala_de_prensa/participa-en-la-consulta-sobre-lineamientos-politica-cienciaabierta-para-colombia
24. Lineamientos Generales de Ciencia Abierta. Conacyt México. 2017.
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29. OMB Memorandum to Federal Agencies, “Open Data Policy-Management Information as an Asset.TheWhite House. 9 May 2013Available athttps://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2013/m-13-13.pdf
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gemode=none/
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Available at https://trilateralresearch.co.uk/project/recode/
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https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/resoluci%C3%B3n-640-2017-277216
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Wellcome Trust. 14 January 2003. Available at
http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/WellcomeReport0303.pdf.
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543. The Bermuda Principles (1996). HUGO. 25 February 1996. Available at
http://www.casimir.org.uk/storyfiles/64.0.summary_of_bermuda_principles.pdf
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2014. Available at http://www.bouchoutdeclaration.org/declaration/
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THE DIGITAL AGE. Liber Europe. 2014. available at: http://thehaguedeclaration.com/the-haguedeclaration-on-knowledge-discovery-in-the-digital-age
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11 February 2019. Available at http://www.ecas.cas.cn/gzwj/ygzzd/201909/t20190917_4552523.html
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