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Data Ethics Working Group

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Mission and objectives 

The mission of the Working Group was to work with global scholars to collaboratively establish a basic consensus for further activities and research on data ethics principles and a data ethics framework to help CODATA advance its mission in championing global open data exchange and applications in alignment with the UNESCO Recommendations on Open Science. The specific objective was to explore the landscape and make recommendations on how CODATA activities can contribute to tackling issues of data ethics.  

Significance 

The growing application of big data in scientific research can raise some ethical challenges, particularly in relation to privacy, transparency, accountability and openness. The Data Ethics WG supported and promoted CODATA’s mission to advance science and improve our world, and promote the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation for ethical considerations in data stewardship and consensus on global open scientific data access and utilisation. The WG also liaised with international partners and initiatives, such as ISC, EOSC, GOSC etc. to promote application of the recommendations. 

Impact 

Over its two year lifespan (2021-2023), the Data Ethics WG aimed to: 

  • Conduct a survey and create a forum to define the role of CODATA in data ethics.  
  • Develop an initial consensus on the most important ethical issues in relation to the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendations. 
  • Propose initial recommendations for future CODATA Task Group on data ethics and guidelines for implementation of the UNESCO recommendation.  
  • Draft initial data ethics definitions and terms for proposal of the future Task Group to be submitted in 2023

Planned activities and outputs for 2021-2023 

  • Set up the Working Group, by 30 May 2022
  • Conduct a questionnaire survey of Data Ethics: June 2022
  • Draft a paper on research on concept and content of Data Ethics: December 2022
  • Develop a White paper on global Data Ethics: June 2023
  • Host a Data Ethics session in IDW 2023 and report: October 2023 at International Data Week in Salzburg
  • Submit an application to establish a Data Ethics Task Group.

Outcome

The Data Ethics WG presented draft policy briefs on a set of data ethics issues at SciDataCon / IDW 2023, and laid the foundation for the CODATA Data Ethics Task Group: https://codata.org/initiatives/task-groups/data-ethics/

Contacts

Co-chairs: Prof. Lianglin Hu, Computer Network Information Center, CAS, China. Email: hull[at]cnic.cn; Prof. Johannes John-Langba, School of Applied Human Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. Email: JohnLangbaJ[at]ukzn.ac.za.

 

Page last reviewed 2024-11-06.

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