The 26th plenary session of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) (RDA VP26) took place online from March 16–20. Gatis Lāma, a representative of the Latvian Data stewards network and data curator at Riga Technical University, also participated, gaining an up-to-date insight into the development of research data management and its importance in ensuring sustainable research. The event was joined by 316 participants from the international research data community from 40 countries, analysing issues of data accessibility, interoperability, management and sharing in joint discussions.
The discussions sought solutions to a wide range of data governance issues. Particular attention was paid to data ethics as a continuous process throughout the data lifecycle, as well as the challenges in implementing the FAIR principles, emphasising the need for common guidelines and closer cooperation. The importance of persistent identifiers (PIDs) in ensuring data traceability and connectivity was also highlighted.
The event also discussed the approach of complex citation, which offers a more structured way to reference data and other digital objects used in research, promoting reproducibility and transparency.
Overall, RDA VP26 confirmed that modern data management is evolving in an integrated direction, where FAIR principles, PID systems, data ethics and new citation practices play a significant role. These insights are important for the development of good practices in quality data management and open science.
