Easier Ways to Access Federally-Funded Data
ResearchDataGov (RDG) is a website that allows people to find and request access to data from federal agencies in the United States. This data is often restricted and can only be accessed by certain people or organizations. RDG was created to help the federal government use data to make evidence-based decisions.
In addition to the RDG portal, the US government has launched a new online portal that allows social scientists to apply for access to protected data sets collected by 16 federal agencies. The Standard Application Process (SAP) is intended to streamline the process of requesting data for research, and to make it easier for researchers to search for and track the status of their requests. The SAP was unveiled after a soft launch earlier this year and is expected to reduce the time it takes to complete reviews and notify researchers of their access status. Margaret Levenstein, WDS SC member and economist at the University of Michigan, said the portal would be "transformational".
Congratulations to Margaret Levenstein, Director of ICPSR and WDS Scientific Committee member, for her contribution to "Accessing U.S. Data for Research Just Got Easier" in Science.
Try the ResearchDataGov portal here
WDS at AGU
Meredith Goins, Executive Director of the WDS International Program Office, will be presenting and meeting with members.
Come see Meredith present IN53A-01: TRUST Principles Inspire Digital Repositories to Serve Reusable Data for the Long-Term in E252 on 16 December at 11:00AM Central Time.
Call for WDS SC Nominations
The World Data System Scientific Committee (WDS SC) is seeking nominations for candidates to replace one vacancy on the Scientific Committee. The term of this position will be from 1 February 2023 to 30 June 2024.
To maintain diversity on the Scientific committee, we encourage nominations particularly focusing on females, and underrepresented geographic regions including the Global South. All scientific disciplines are welcome. A listing of the current committee can be seen here: https://worlddatasystem.org/about/scientific-committee/.
The World Data System requests your help in identifying candidates for this position. Please nominate a data steward and share this opportunity to be a part of our Scientific Committee.
Please use this survey link https://forms.office.com/r/3gyaLR2ZJ to submit your nominations. Please respond by 20 January 2023.
If you have any questions, please email us at
Thank you for all you do to make the World Data System a leader in data. We look forward to receiving your nominations.
SciDataCon 2023
About SciDataCon:
SciDataCon is the international conference for scrutiny and discussion of the frontier issues of data in research. The scope of SciDataCon covers policy matters and the role of data in scientific endeavors and scholarly communications; the opportunities of the data revolution for the global research enterprise; innovations in data science and data stewardship; and the challenge of developing a sustainable data ecosystem, including the role of education and capacity building. Since 2016, SciDataCon has been organized as an integral part of International Data Week.
SciDataCon is organized by the two data bodies of the International Science Council (ISC): CODATA (the ISC's Committee on Data) and the WDS (the ISC's World Data System International Program Office).
For more info on the conference: https://www.scidatacon.org/
The Call for Sessions, Presentations, and Posters is now open:
https://www.scidatacon.org/IDW-2023-Salzburg/
Key Dates:
- November 2022: call for sessions and papers released.
- 31 March 2023: deadline for sessions and papers.
- 31 May 2023: deadline for posters.
- 12 June 2023: program published.
- 23-26 October 2023: IDW-SciDataCon 2023.
We look forward to your submissions and hope to see you at SciDataCon 2023 in Salzburg and virtually!
WDS-ITO to Host Upcoming POLDER Workshops
Save the dates! The World Data System International Technology Office (WDS-ITO) will be hosting two online workshops in early 2023 to help repositories work through the POLDER Schema.org Best Practice Guide version 1.0 and complete the recommended markup in order to be included in the Polar Federated Search.
Following community best practices and standards, such as the POLDER Schema.org Best Practise Guide, further improves data interoperability and discoverability by enabling repository data to be included in the POLDER Federated Search. Being included in the POLDER Federated Search will increase the visibility of repository data, increasing the opportunity for reuse by researchers around the globe.
The first workshop will be embedded within the Polar to Global Hackathon on 26 January, 2023, 21:00 – 23:00 UTC. This event will provide hands-on experience with applying the best practices while simultaneously testing any potential limitations they may have. This session is framed as a hackathon and will be intensive.
The second workshop on 7 February, 2023, 16:00-18:00 UTC will address individual applications of the best practices and inclusion in the POLDER Federated Search, and will provide an opportunity for community feedback.
More information about both workshops can be found on their event pages, which will be updated with more information closer to the events. These sessions will be open to everyone, so mark your calendars and we hope to see you there!