The ordinance no. 867/Fiocruz, dated September 13, 2023, establishes Arca Dados as the official institutional repository for research data at Fiocruz (1). It aims to be the platform for archiving, publishing, disseminating, preserving, and sharing digital research data produced by the Fiocruz community and/or in partnership with other institutes or research organizations.
Arca Dados follows the FAIR principles, which aim to ensure that data are:
- Findable (easily locatable),
- Accessible (efficiently accessible),
- Interoperable (integrable with other systems),
- Reusable (reusable for new research and analyses).
Since 2017, the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) has been expanding the debate within the scope of Open Science, with an emphasis on the management, sharing, and opening of research data, outlining strategies for establishing structures, processes, and norms for managing data from scientific research at the institution.
One of these results is the "Policy for the management, sharing, and opening of research data: principles and guidelines" (2), launched in 2020, which provides guidelines for making research data, as public goods, available in an open, ethical, integral, accessible, timely, and responsible manner, considering national scientific research strategic policies, institutional interests, and current regulatory standards.
Practically, it became essential to consolidate a technological infrastructure for the implementation of the Fiocruz Research Data Repository – Arca Dados, a platform for managing, sharing, opening, and preserving research data produced by Fiocruz, whose development began in 2019, starting from a pilot project developed in two phases.
Arca Dados defines its objectives as: stimulating the wide circulation of technical and scientific knowledge; fostering new research; ensuring transparency by guaranteeing the reproducibility or replicability of existing research; promoting Open and Citizen Science; and fostering collaboration among researchers, educators, academics, managers, and postgraduate students to advance knowledge and create solutions that meet society's demands.
At the end of 2023, Arca Dados was awarded second place in the Digital Transformation Award 2023, in the category "Digital Health Public Policies in SUS," during the 6th Health Solutions Fair, in addition to receiving an Honorable Mention (3). In 2024, the repository earned the CoreTrustSeal (4), an important international certification that attests to its reliability as a trusted data source, being the first data repository in Brazil and Latin America to obtain this certification.
At the end of 2024, Arca Dados received the CAPES/CLARIVATE (5) CoreTrustSeal Recognition Award granted to Fiocruz for being the first Brazilian institution to achieve the CoreTrustSeal. This seal is an important international certification that attests to the compliance of data repositories with quality standards and best practices for preserving and sharing research data.
The award was presented during the seminar "Information Technology as an Ally of Scientific Communication," which also celebrated the 24th anniversary of the CAPES Journal Portal. This achievement reflects Fiocruz's commitment to excellence in research data management and the strengthening of open science in Brazil.
Arca Dados is chaired by a Management Committee (Arca Dados Management Committee), established by Fiocruz Presidential Ordinance no. 489, dated September 20, 2021, being one of the governance bodies of Open Science policies, as provided in Fiocruz Presidential Ordinance No. 157, dated May 12, 2021.
The Arca Dados Management Committee has a multidisciplinary structure coordinated by the Vice−Presidência de Educação, Informação e Comunicação (VPEIC), with the deputy coordination of the Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde (ICICT), including representatives from the da Vice−Presidência Pesquisa e Coleções Biológicas (VPPCB),and Biological Collections (VPPCB), the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC), the Coordenação−Geral de Gestão de Tecnologia de Informação (COGETIC), and the Coordenação de Gestão Tecnológica (GESTEC). This management committee is responsible for defining the objectives, competencies, composition, attributions of its components, and functioning of Arca Dados.
Arca Dados is operational for the deposit, sharing, and opening of research data. For questions, information, or to start a deposit process in Arca Dados, write to dadosabertos@fiocruz.br. To start a data deposit and curation in Arca Dados, you should contact via email: repositorio.arcadados@fiocruz.br. If you need more information or have questions about Arca Dados, or want to contact the Arca Dados Management Committee, send your message to: dadosabertos@fiocruz.br.
Feel free to ask if you need any further assistance!
(1) Ordinance Fiocruz nº 867/2023
(2) Policy for the management, sharing, and opening of research data: principles and guidelines (2020)
(3) Between November 27 and 29 in Brasília, the 6th edition of the Health Solutions Fair took place, with the theme "Digital Transformation in Health." The fair aimed to find innovative digital solutions for the public network and serve as a space for exchanging experiences among people participating in digital transformation initiatives in the health sector. Arca Dados was awarded during the innovative solutions fair, receiving second place in the Digital Transformation Award 2023 in the category "Digital Health Public Policies in SUS," as well as an Honorable Mention.
(4) CoreTrustSeal
(5) Award CAPES/CLARIVATE