RDA COVID-19 Work Group Announces Second Release of Guidelines and Recommendations

The Research Data Alliance and its 10,500+ international members have the second release of the RDA COVID-19 recommendations and guidelines available. Since the first release, the RDA COVID-19 working group has seen the addition of two cross-cutting COVID-19 sub-groups focusing on Legal and Ethical aspects and Software. The seven sub-groups have kept up their relentless pace and the main updates in this version, with respect to the 1st release on the 24 April 2020, include:

  • Section 3 -Foundational Principles/Recommendations - modifications

  • Section 4 - Clinical - updated

  • Section 6 - Epidemiology - revised

  • Section 8 - Omics - revised

  • Section 9 - Overarching Research Software Guidelines - new sub-section 9.3 initial guidelines for policy makers included

  • Section 10 - Overarching Legal and Ethical Guidelines added

Furthermore, the editorial team have incorporated some of the feedback received via the Requests for Comments (RfC) process and sent directly to Co-chairs, Sub-group moderators and the Editorial team.

The social sciences and community participation sub-groups are working on updates and additions for future releases.

Readers are invited to visit each of the sub-group pages (accessible from the COVID-19 Working Group landing page) to see specific ongoing activities and links to documents and resources.

Timing, Future Releases and Weekly Webinars: 

In terms of timing, RDA foresees weekly releases between now and 22 May 2020. More information and insights on the plans for those releases, as well as highlights from the sub-groups are given during the weekly webinar every Tuesday at 11UTC – see Events page for details and to access previous recordings and presentations.

Request for Comments: 

As always, feedback on the content of the releases, the scope, the direction, is vital for all involved to shape and focus the document and the sections to be a useful and meaningful tool. Providing comments is easy:

  1. Log in to the RDA web site 

  2. Go to the Outputs page 

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page

  4. Write your comments in the box (you may upload notes/attachments too if you wish)

  5. Select “Save”

Call for Expertise: 

The Clinical Subgroup would greatly appreciate the help from clinical imaging data and immunological data experts. Please join the COVID-19 Clinical group at https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups/rda-covid19-clinical or contact the RDA Secretariat at enquiries[at]rd-alliance.org