Open access data policy of the Finnish Museum of Natural History

Approved by the Management Board of the Museum on 10 March 2008. To be followed in principle and with adjustments based on experiences.

1. A publicly available metadatabase will be maintained. All collections, databases and datasets will be catalogued there soon after they have been created. The metadatabase fulfills the requirements of the INSPIRE Directive and the Decree on the Openness of Government Activities and on Good Practice in Information Management, and for this purpose describes, e.g., data availability and access restrictions.
2. Data on the accessions in the national collections will be made available in full detail, as far as they are digitally available, and do not concern certain endangered species.
3. Data from biodiversity monitoring activities will become openly available in full detail with some delay, which normally is 5 years after the data has been received at the museum. However, the observer himself/herself can require a faster and more precise release.
4. Special arrangements can be made with public authorities and other customers of a faster access to the detailed data. These services can carry a charge as the Act on Criteria for Charges Payable to the State requires, and would be available through a protected access point.
5. Furthermore, all digital data will be made immediately accessible already before the above-mentioned delay, but with limited detail. The responsible scientist can decide on the generalisation that will be applied. The recommendation is an accuracy that is sufficient for global-scale analysis: I.e., scientific name (preferrably at species level), year, and latitude and longitude rounded to the nearest full degree (that is, in north-south direction 111 km, but narrower in east-west direction towards the poles), no other details.
6. About certain endangered species, for which there is a reason to suspect misuse of data, more details than the recommended generalisation will never be released. Guidelines of the Ministry of Environment will be followed here.
7. For the sake of good order, volunteer observers will (in future, but not retroactively) be asked a permission to make their data available in more detail than with 10 km accuracy, and for showing their name.
8. Metadata will be used to describe the possibility of obtaining the data in more detail by a special request. Furthermore, and following the EU regulation on sui-generis rights, users will be required to obtain a permission for using the data when it forms a qualitatively or quantitatively essential part of data used in a work. The permission will normally be granted, but the possibility of a joint authorship need to be discussed.
9. The availability of data and their actual use will be monitored, and these will be criteria for performance within the museum and outside. Funding for projects will be decided on this basis. Income from data deliveries will in principle be channelled to the project that produced the data.

It should be well understood that this means a cultural change. However, internalising it and reaping the benefits of it will take time. Also technical implementation can only take place gradually, and with the pace of digitisation. However, by starting the implementation with high profile from the largest already digital datasets will signal the beginning of a new era.