Your contributions to the RDA, regardless of venue, make the organisation stronger and are valued by the community. We ask that, as part of the community, you help others feel equally valued and welcomed by treating others with the respect and professionalism with which you would like to be treated. As agreed upon joining the RDA, all members are expected to abide by the RDA’s Guiding Principles.

The RDA expects members to refrain from production or posting of any of the following² in an RDA context: 

We expect participants to follow these rules at meeting, conference, and workshop venues, conference-related social events, on official RDA online platforms, or when using associated social media identifiers of RDA, e.g., #RDAPlenary, @resdatall.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to, offensive verbal or written comments related to any of the following: gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, colour, race, ethnicity, religion. It can also include activities related to the display of sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tool Usage Guidance provides guidelines and best practices for the use of AI tools during RDA activities, including meetings and events.

Verbal and written reports require the collection of the following information³:

Once you have submitted your report, you will receive an email acknowledging receipt. Unless the Council is implicated in the incident, the Council co-chairs will discuss the incident and determine how to proceed. Actions and next steps will be determined on a case by case basis. In most cases, the Council co-chairs will nominate a Moderator who will manage the complaint. The Moderator will be impartial, with no direct connection to any of the parties involved and will act without bias or an appearance of bias. 

If the incident is determined to be ongoing or a threat to physical safety, the RDA respondents’ immediate priority will be to protect everyone involved. This means an ‘official’ response may be delayed until they believe that the situation has been resolved and that everyone is physically safe.

Accusations of criminal activity will be reported to local law enforcement, and RDA Council Co-Chairs and local host notified immediately if you agree. You will be supported for the remainder of the event as appropriate.

Within one week, you will receive notice of a resolution and course of action, or an explanation of why the situation is not yet resolved. Your feedback on the decision may be taken into account, but it may or may not affect the final outcome⁴.

Incident details will be logged in confidential records, to document patterns that may emerge, even over longer timeframes. Please note that all reports are kept confidential and only shared with those who “need to know”. Retaliation in any form against anyone reporting an incident of harassment, independent of the outcome, will not be tolerated⁵.

¹ Original source and credit: http://2012.jsconf.us/#/about & The Ada Initiative. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

²  Items 1-8 are drawn from https://www.americanbar.org/utility/codeofconduct.html, used with permission and modified slightly for RDA purposes.

³  https://iiif.io/event/conduct/

⁴ https://iiif.io/event/conduct/

⁵ https://ipres2018.org/code-of-conduct

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) , www.rd-alliance.org, (“Site”) abides by the following principles when handling personal information:

This Privacy Notice describes The Research Data Alliance policies with respect to the personal information that it collects through the Site or when it communicates with its users (“you” or “user”), and the choices that are available to its users. “Personal information” means any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.

Your use of the Site signifies that you agree to all terms of this Privacy Notice. If you communicate with us and provide us with personal information, we will assume that you agree that we can use it to communicate with you. If you disagree with any part of this Privacy Notice, please do not use the Site or communicate with us.

This Privacy Notice applies solely to personal information that The Research Data Alliance collects through the Site or through electronic communications that you send to The Research Data Alliance as indicated on the Site. It does not apply to the websites of third parties, such as business partners or sponsors, to which the Site may link. The Research Data Alliance does not endorse, and is not responsible for the content of these third party websites or their policies or practices.
If you provide any personal information to or through third party websites, your transaction will be subject to the terms and conditions and the privacy policies of these third party websites.

The Research Data Alliance is managing different types of data, all complying with the current European legislation on Data Protection. The Research Data Alliance services will be provided via the web portal whose servers are located in Europe, and the present privacy policy is provided pursuant to Article 13 of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (hereinafter, “GDPR”), to those who interact with the website services, with the purpose of protecting personal data accessible by computer.

Data voluntarily supplied by the User — The web platform is designed to allow users browse through it without providing any contact information. However, certain areas may require, or allow for, the submission of personal information, such as when a user fills out a newsletter form or contacts us. As an example, clients of the The Research Data Alliance services need to register to become part of the Research Data Alliance community and use the Research Data Alliance solutions.

The data collected and further processed are necessary for accessing the Research Data Alliance solutions, as well as for communication and follow-up activities. Appropriate detailed information is provided and, where required, consent for the processing of personal data is obtained before a given service is activated. Said consent may be revoked at any time, whereby the ability to use the service in question is lost.

Children — The Site is not directed to children. The Research Data Alliance does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Log information — Our server software automatically gathers general information from all users. For example: IP address, computer type, screen resolution, OS version, domain name, location, date and time of the visit, page(s) visited, time spent on a page, website from which the user came, action taken by the user when leaving our Site. Some of this information is provided directly by the user’s browser, the remainder is obtained through cookies and tracking technologies.

Registration information — Webinars and other events may be provided with the assistance of unaffiliated third party vendors, which may require that the vendors have access to personal information such as name, company, and email address. These vendors will provide us with this information, so that we can keep track of who registers to, or attends these events. In this case, the information that you provide as part of this registration will be subject to both our Privacy Notice and the applicable privacy statement posted on the vendor’s website.

The Research Data Alliance uses personal information as follows:

The Research Data Alliance Members — We may share personal information with members of the RDA for the purpose of creating a knowledge base and potential customer leads for the exploitation of results and assets.

Law enforcement; compliance — We may use or disclose personal information to any third party (a) if we believe that we are required to do so by law; (b) to comply with legal process or respond to requests from governmental or public authorities; (c) to prevent, investigate, detect, or prosecute criminal offenses or attacks on the technical integrity of our Site or network; (d) to enforce our Terms and Conditions; or (e) to protect the rights, privacy, property, business, or safety of The Research Data Alliance , its business partners, employees, members, Site users, or the public. Unless this is prohibited by applicable law, we will let you know if a third party requests access to personal information about you.

You have the right to have access to the personal information that we hold about you, and to have this information corrected and amended, as defined in the GDPR art. 12, GDPR art. 15, GDPR art. 16. To do so, please contact us as indicated in section 14. How to contact The Research Data Alliance . However, please be aware that in some cases, the administrative and technical burden associated with the retrieval of archived data may be substantial. We would need to be compensated for this effort in a manner that is consistent with our actual cost.

You have the right to request that we delete Personal Information that we hold about you. The Research Data Alliance website is compliant with the Right to Erasure as defined in the GDPR, art. 17. If you would like us to erase the Personal Information that we hold about you, please contact us by email at enquiries@rd-alliance.org.

You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of your personal data, as defined in the GDPR, art. 21. Please note that all the data you provide on this website will be used only for the delivery of the Research Data Alliance services as described in section 4. How we use this information. If you would like to apply your right to object, please contact us by email at enquiries@rd-alliance.org.

We will retain personal information about a user for so long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Notice unless a longer retention period is required by law and/or regulations.

The Research Data Alliance seeks to adopt commercially reasonable security measures consistent with industry practice to protect personal information under its control against loss, misuse, and alteration. However, we cannot guarantee the security of our servers, the means by which personal information is transmitted between your computer and our servers, or any personal information that we receive through or in connection with the Site.

We attempt to strike a reasonable balance between security and convenience. Emails are usually sent as unencrypted text. If misrouted or intercepted, an unencrypted email could be read easily. If there is a matter that requires high security or confidentiality, please keep us informed about the sensitivity of the information, and do not send the related information through email.

The Research Data Alliance does not represent or warrant that the Site is appropriate or available for use in any particular jurisdiction. Those who choose to access the Site do so on their own initiative and at their own risk, and are responsible for complying with all local laws, rules, and regulations that apply to them.
We may limit access to the Site to any person, geographic area, or jurisdiction that we choose, in our sole discretion.Inquiries and Complaints

If you have any question, comment, or complaints about this Privacy Notice, or the use, management or disclosure of personal information collected on or through our Site, please contact us at enquiries@rd-alliance.org

We update this Privacy Notice from time to time. If the changes are significant, we will post a prominent notice on this Site for a reasonable time to notify you of these changes. Unless, and until, you object in writing, by contacting us at enquiries@rd-alliance.org, all changes will apply to the existing information about you that the Research Data Alliance already holds, and the personal information collected from the effective date of the revised Privacy Notice. Your use of our Site following the effective date of any revision will constitute your acceptance of the terms of the updated Privacy Notice.

If you have any questions, comments, or complaints, regarding this Privacy Notice, or our privacy, security or data protection practices, please contact us by email at enquiries@rd-alliance.org.

This website is operated by Marameo Design PTY LTD, a(n) Company formed in Australia, with an Australian Business Number of 33 631 679 25, on behalf of the Research Data Alliance Foundation.

The Data Controller of this website and all its content is the Research Data Alliance Foundation with its legal headquarters at the Rutherford Appleton Library, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX – England, Company No: 09021881 & Registered Charity Number: 1162762. RDA Foundation can be contacted via email: enquiries[at]rd-alliance.org.

Effective Date: July 1, 2024

Some of the data gathered from the platform is obtained via the use of third-party services. The data collected and how this is used is listed below: