Activities

Our work began in November 2024 and is structured into four phases, with example activities highlighted as follows:

Phase 1: Learning (2024-2026)

  • research into current adoption of and attitudes towards open scholarship practices among researchers who handle data on religion

  • assessment of current journal policies regarding data sharing

  • landscaping of existing data stewardship training provision

  • review of prior interdisciplinary data stewardship initiatives in domains other than religion and consideration of what lessons can be learned from prior efforts to harmonize data on religion 

Phase 2: Scoping (2025-2026)

  • conducting focus groups to explore discipline-specific needs and challenges

  • reviewing current best practices for interdisciplinary data stewardship, metadata schemas, and data commons governance

  • assessing the current state, roadmaps, and interoperability of technical infrastructure that would be needed to support the RDC

  • identifying data stewardship champions from target disciplines

Phase 3: Community Building and Prioritization (2026-2027)

  • conducting focus groups with researchers, infrastructure managers and builders, gatekeepers, and potential end users to prioritize metadata concepts and infrastructure features

  • forming an interim Steering Group to build the foundations for a long-term, community-based governance model

  • a collaborative design workshop to refine the RDC specifications

Phase 4: Co-Design and Launch (2027-2031)

  • supporting co-design working groups focused on community engagement, metadata standards, tools, policies, and training

  • commissioning a feasibility study and soliciting public comment

  • building and launching the RDC

 

Funds are so far committed for Phases 1-3.

Outputs

For our latest working documents, presentations, reports, and project updates, please visit our Open Science Framework (OSF) project page. 

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