<div dir="ltr"><img class="" src="cid:ii_151a1dab2f54d993" alt="Inline image 1" height="82" width="176"><h1><font size="2">NISO Receives Two Grants To Undertake the Creation of a Framework on Data and Privacy</font></h1><font size="2">
</font><p><font size="2"> Baltimore, MD - January 7, 2016 - The National Information
Standards Organization (NISO) has received two grants to develop a
consensus framework for mitigating and managing the privacy risks
related to the collection, preservation, sharing, use, and re-use of
research data sets. The grants from both the <a href="https://www.mellon.org" target="_blank">Andrew W. Mellon Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://www.sloan.org" target="_blank">Alfred P. Sloan Foundation</a>
will further advance NISO's existing privacy initiatives on user
privacy in library, publisher, and software supplier systems, details of
which were <a href="http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/patron_privacy/" target="_blank">published in December 2015.</a><br></font>
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The 22-month project funded by the Mellon Foundation is called
"Development of a Consensus Framework for Mitigating the Privacy Risks
Related to the Collection, Sharing, and Use of Research Data Sets." A
proposed joint NISO-Research Data Alliance (RDA) working group will
develop the framework and associated metadata, use cases, and
implementation support materials. Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive
Director, will serve as the overall project director and co-chair of the
working group. The working group will also be co-chaired by Bonnie
Tijerina, a Researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute and
founder of the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference. The
Working Group Case Statement is currently open and available for comment
<a href="https://rd-alliance.org/group/rdaniso-privacy-implications-research-data-sets-wg/case-statement/rdaniso-privacy-implications" target="_blank">on the RDA website.</a><br></font>
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Work on privacy issues surrounding data sets is related to and will
build upon ongoing initiatives at NISO and RDA. The framework will fill a
need in the international science, social science, and humanities
communities, which often work with human subject research data but lack
concrete guidelines as to how to safeguard those data as they are
shared, used, and processed. Institutional repositories have too often
dealt with the question of privacy in data sets by exclusion rather than
management. Not only do repository managers risk incurring significant
financial penalties in this process, they also create avoidable barriers
to data sharing and reuse.<br></font>
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In order to explore the issues and provide needed guidance, global
leaders in the areas of data science, repositories, privacy, publishing,
and technology will be invited to participate in the working group,
which will convene both virtually and in person at RDA plenary meetings
over the next 18 months in Tokyo, Japan; Denver, CO; and Barcelona,
Spain.<br></font>
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Additional efforts related to this working group and the initiative will
be supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation called
"Support for public outreach, engagement, and promotion of the joint
NISO-RDA Working Group on the Privacy Implications of Research Data."
Following the development of the framework and data protection
guidelines for the international scholarly community, it will be
important to advance an understanding by data creators, managers, and
consumers of the privacy implications of exposing, using, and preserving
research data. A full understanding of the risks will support better
adoption of the framework, so that a key component of this project will
be a public symposium where stakeholders will discuss important
practical aspects of privacy and research data.<br></font>
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The symposium will be held concurrently with International Data Week
2016, September 11-17, 2016. This public symposium will bring together
members of the Research Data Alliance, the ICSU World Data Systems,
International CODATA, and the SciDataCon conference for a week of
associated meetings in Denver, CO. Free live virtual participation is
planned for those unable to attend in person, and a permanent video
archive of the event will also be posted on the Internet for public
viewing. Promotion of the work will continue after the symposium, with
the Sloan Foundation also supporting the creation of related articles in
NISO's Information Standards Quarterly and planned additional news
reports documenting the event. Subsequent working group efforts will
focus on wider adoption of the framework.<br></font>
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Public comments on the draft Case Statement on the RDA webpage are
welcome. People interested in participating in this project are
encouraged to either contact NISO's Associate Director, <a href="mailto:nlagace@niso.org" target="_blank">Nettie Lagace</a>, or register with the Research Data Alliance and <a href="https://rd-alliance.org/group/rdaniso-privacy-implications-research-data-sets-wg/case-statement/rdaniso-privacy-implications" target="_blank">join the group on the RDA website</a>. More information about the project is posted <a href="http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/data_privacy/" target="_blank">on the NISO website</a>. <br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><b>About the National
Information Standards Organization (NISO)</b></font></p><font size="2">
</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2">NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards
that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange
of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To
fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information
aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and
scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of
knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the
entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit
association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
More information about NISO is available on its website: <a href="http://www.niso.org" target="_blank">http://www.niso.org</a>.</font></p><font size="2"><br>For More Information, Contact:
</font><address><font size="2">
Nettie Lagace<br> NISO<br> Phone: <a href="tel:301-654-2512" value="+13016542512" target="_blank">301-654-2512</a><br> <a href="http://www.niso.org/news/pr/contact?item_key=88661948a265bff37fd5e2665ede0908b38f27e5&pr_contact=1" target="_blank">Email Nettie Lagace</a></font>
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