ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council
Time Limits
The ESRC requires that data must be made available for preparation for re-use and/or archiving with the ESRC data service providers within three months of the end of the award.
- The ESRC will withhold the final payment of an award if data have not been offered for archiving to the required standard within three months of the end of the award.
- Award holders must also contact ESDS within three months of completing their grant and submit a data review form. However, guidance can and should be sought at the start of an award and not at the end, especially if difficulties in sharing research data are anticipated. The ESRC will reserve the right to grant waivers only where sufficient evidence has been given demonstrating that data cannot be archived
Data Management Plan required?
YES. For all applications submitted after 19 April 2011, a data management and sharing plan will need to be submitted as part of the Je-S application. For what is expected to be included, see the ESRC's Research Data Policy, at the link below.
The ESRC requires all applicants seeking ESRC funding to include a statement on data sharing in the relevant section of the Je-S application form. If data sharing is not possible, the applicant must present a strong argument to justify their case.
The policy states that “The ESRC will seek an assessment of data management plans via its peer review and assessment processes. Although the application will first and foremost be assessed on grounds of its scientific merit, nonetheless, an assessment of the data management sharing plan will be included in the general assessment of the application. Hence a poorly prepared data management and sharing plan may have a detrimental effect on an otherwise strong application”.
Access/Data Sharing
- It is mandatory at the earliest opportunity to:
- deposit a copy of any resultant articles published in journals or conference proceedings, in the ESRC Social Sciences Repository.
- wherever possible, deposit the bibliographical metadata relating to such articles, including a link to the publisher's website, at or around the time of publication, in the ESRC Social Sciences Repository. See the Open Access Policy for how to implement this - link below.
- ESRC also requires its award holders to offer any data resulting from an award to the UK Data Archive via the ESDS.