Finishing your research

Keeping and publishing final data

Once you have finished your research, your data must be secured and kept available for a period of 10 years, according to the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. Wageningen University & Research acknowledges this VSNU code, which means researchers and PhD students are required to keep their data available for this period.

Get help with publishing your datasets and linking them to your publications
You can choose or be required to publish your data. Data Management Support offers several publishing services (see 'Publishing your dataset in a repository'), making use of the infrastructure of DANS and 4TU.Centre for Research Data. We then make the datasets visible in Staff Publications and link them to the appropriate publications.

Get help in linking your source code to your publications
If you publish your source code through Git@WUR and want it linked to the appropriate publications, contact Data Management Support.

More information:

Frequently asked questions

Am I personally responsible for taking good care of my research data?

Yes. Individual researchers may be challenged to be transparent about the choices that they've made for Data Management and data sharing. These choices need to follow Wageningen University & Research's ethical guidelines. The Code of Conduct for Academic Practice states that raw research data should be kept for at least 10 years and in such a way that they can be consulted at all times with a minimal expense of time and effort. This means carefully thinking about Data Management Planning.

Wat are the minimum data retention periods?

Raw research data should be kept for at least ten years. The Code of Conduct for Academic Practice states you have to make the data available on request to other academic practitioners, unless legal requirements dictate otherwise. Journals and learned societies may also demand a certain data retention period which is never shorter than ten years.

When I leave Wageningen University & Research, where should my dat be kept?

Check the data policy of your chair group to see whether any specific arrangements have been made for keeping your data after your research project ends.
Following WUR’s research data policy, any datasets underlying research data should be archived in a repository.

What are the data availibility policies of journals in my field of research?

In general, most journals encourage data publishing but data availability policies differ on a journal to journal basis. We have compiled a list of the data availability statements for the top 20 journals in which Wageningen University & Research researchers publish. See Journal Requirements.

What options do I have to publish my research data?

WUR’s research data policy stipulates that you should archive datasets in a repository if these datasets underlie any publications. The policy gives various archiving options for these, such as the national data centres DANS-EASY and 4TU Centre for Research Data. Visit our pages on data repositories and on the data archiving policy for more information.

Should I publish all of my data or can I make a selection?

Following WUR policy, datasets that underlie publications must be archived in a data repository. Such datasets should include all data files and documentation (additional explanation of these files) needed to reuse the data and verify any results presented in the publication. More information on what data to archive can be found on our page about data archiving.
Datasets that do not underlie any publications can also be published – this is in fact recommended if these datasets can be of value to other researchers. The flow chart below may help you to decide on whether to publish such data.

What can I do if I can't publish my data because of privacy or other issues?

If publishing your data Open Access is not ethical or legal, you still have to make your data available on request for verification purposes. You may consider publishing your dataset in restricted access and allow the data to be found by openly describing the dataset and how it may be accessed. See also When and why to publish your dataset.

Can Wageningen University & Research help me link my research data/source code and articles?

Yes, we can. Once your dataset/source code is published we can assign a persistent identifier, register your datasets/source code in Staff Publications and link them to the accompanying publications. In this way the visibility of both your datasets/source code and your publications is enhanced. See 'Publishing your dataset in a repository' for more information or contact Data Management Support.