The Open Preservation Foundation has today endorsed the TRUST principles for digital repositories.

Following on from several months of RDA consultation and discussion within the digital repository community, a set of guiding principles have been developed to facilitate best practice in trustworthy data management: 

• Transparency
• Responsibility
• User focus
• Sustainability
• Technology

The principles were recently published in an article for Scientific Data, co-authored by Barbara Sierman, chair of the OPF’s board of directors. The article explains that,

Repositories must earn the trust of the communities they intend to serve and demonstrate that they are reliable and capable of appropriately managing the data they hold […] The TRUST Principles provide a mnemonic to remind data repository stakeholders of the need to develop and maintain the infrastructure to foster continuing stewardship of data and enable future use of their data holdings.

Martin Wrigley, executive director of the Open Preservation Foundation, said:

We endorse these principles in our capacity as an advocate for best practice in digital preservation and in recognition of the fact that they are vital to securing a sustainable future for our digital information. These are concepts that are allied with our own organisational mission and values, and moreover, they have implications for much of the work being done by our members.

More information about the TRUST principles can be found here and on the Research Data Alliance (RDA) website.