[open-science] On expressing access constraints in a repository of mixed openness

Mon Sep 20 10:06:00 UTC 2010

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Chris Rusbridge <c.rusbridge at googlemail.com
> wrote:

> OK I'm looking for some more help again. I'm hoping that at the very least
> the discipline of writing down my concern will help me understand it better,
> and at best you guys have a solution.
>
> Let's imagine an institutional data repository (which I guess could be a
> set of different repositories). By definition, the IDR will have data that
> have different degrees of openness. I can distinguish at least these
> conditions:
>
> a) fully open
> b) closed until some condition is met (then to be open)
> c) closed unless some condition is met
> d) closed indefinitely.
>
> I'm not really sure an IDR would actually want to accept data with
> condition (d), but there may be good reasons that escape me at the moment.
> But however much one would like all data to be open, there are substantial
> swags of data that must be temporarily or partially closed.
>
> Independently of conditions (b) to (d), it is possible that some or all of
> the metadata might be open, that is to say the data might be discoverable
> even if not open (presumably if you found and wanted to use the data, then
> some sort of negotiation would have to take place).
>
> My question is: how could constraints like these sensibly be expressed, in
> either a human-readable or (better) machine-readable way?
>

I don't think that there is agreement on how to do b+c even for humans. What
is the condition? Is  like "a paper getting published" - humans will
squabble about what this means so it's impossible for machines.

We have a JISC project CLARION which is managing data embargoes and at
present there is no alternative to humans pressing buttons.

The only simple procedures are a and d. The only normally desirable one is a

P.

> --
> Chris Rusbridge
> Mobile: +44 791 7423828
> Email: c.rusbridge at gmail.com
>
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-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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