Making a statement: Funder-compliant data access statements and support offered at the University of Bristol

There is an increased focus on the inclusion of data access statements in articles since the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) expectation regarding this came into effect in May 2015. Data access statements are brief declarations in an article which cite any data underpinning claims and note any access restrictions placed upon these data, and the EPSRC expectation makes such a statement mandatory in any article acknowledging EPSRC funding. The University of Bristol has taken a variety of approaches to raise awareness of the requirements for data access statements, including promotional campaigns, email alerting and advocacy activities. In addition, we have developed guidance in several different formats. In addition to traditional discipline-specific guides, we have created an interactive web-based tool and a LaTeX package to help researchers create compliant statements. We have also worked collaboratively with other library teams, including Open Access, both to identify researchers in need of assistance and to monitor compliance. The latest fi gures indicate that 48% of researchers contacted have subsequently added compliant data access statements to their papers, and there has been a three-fold increase in the number of authors including compliant data access statements since our campaign to increase awareness began.