Data Governance

Data governance is a principled approach to managing data throughout its life cycle, from acquisition to use to disposal. This page will introduce you to and provide resources on data governance, its importance and its application.

Data Governance

What Is Data Governance?

Data governance is everything you do to ensure data is secure, private, accurate, available and usable. It contributes to:

better, timely decisions
control over costs
enhanced compliance
greater trust from stakeholders and those involved in projects
better risk management
better access to data.

Data governance interacts and influences many areas of data management, such as:

data quality
data retention and storage
findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) data, which involves metadata, vocabularies and identifiers
the CARE principles for Indigenous data sovereignty and governance
the TRUST principles for constructing data repositories
data access and sharing.

Basic Principles of Data Governance

When thinking about data governance, consider:

existing governance practice
roles and responsibilities
data access
the sensitivity of the data
data ownership and location
the storage and type of the data
potential reuse of the data
any risks.

Good data governance will require the right people to follow the right processes with the support of the right technology^[1] throughout the data life cycle.

Data Governance Resources by the ARDC

Use these resources by the ARDC to make sure your data is well governed:

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Research Data Rights Management Guide

A practical guide for people and organisations working with data.

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Data Sharing Policy Development Guidelines

Read our guide to developing a data sharing policy (DSP), which can be crucial to…

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Data Sharing Agreement Development Guidelines

Read our guide to developing a data sharing agreement (DSA), which brings clarity to what…

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Indigenous Data

Optimising the management of sensitive data for community empowerment.

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Data Governance Checklists for Research Projects and Institutions

Use these checklists to ensure data for your research project and institution is well governed.

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Good Data Practices

Manage your research data efficiently.

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Institutional Research Data Management Policies and Procedures

A guide for people developing or updating policies and procedures for managing research data as…

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Related ARDC Resources

We also have resources on topics related to data governance:

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Making Data FAIR

Making data FAIR can accelerate your research impact. This is your guide to making data…

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FAIR Data Self Assessment Tool

Use our FAIR data self assessment tool to assess how FAIR your research dataset is…

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Guide to Choosing a Data Repository

It can be important to publish your data when you’ve completed your research. Find out…

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Publishing Sensitive Data Guide

Read our guide to publishing sensitive research data so you can make clear, lawful, and…

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CARE Principles

Consider applying the CARE principles if your research involves handling, managing and/or analysing Indigenous data.

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Data Governance and Data Quality

Watch this ARDC presentation on data governance and its impact on data quality.

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TRUST Principles

What does trust mean when it comes to research data held in repositories? Learn about…

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ARDC-Facilitated Communities of Practice Supporting Data Governance

Here are some ARDC-facilitated interests groups and communities of practice that you can join to get support for data governance:

Australian Sensitive Data Interest Group

Aimed at research supporters – including infrastructure providers, librarians, policy writers and implementers – this group meets every few months to discuss the challenges and strategies for managing sensitive data.

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Research Data Management Community

This community is a place to ask questions, share resources and find collaborators to solve shared problems in research data management in Australia.

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Australian and New Zealand Data Quality Interest Group

This group holds monthly virtual meetings for Australian and New Zealand data providers, repository operators and data consumers to discuss challenges and strategies for meeting data quality standards and procedures and to connect with international data quality communities.

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Trusted Data Repositories Community of Practice

This community is for organisations interested in seeking international trust certification for their data repositories.

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Further Support

For further support or to ask any questions related to data governance, please contact us.

There are many other organisations and web resources that can help you understand the requirements of data governance, including the:

NSW Government Data Governance Toolkit
Office of the National Data Commissioner (ONDC)
Indigenous Data Network
Australian Digital Observatory (ADO)’s guide to data governance for human-related dynamic digital data
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)’s Data Governance Framework
University of Technology Sydney (UTS)’s Data Governance Policy.

If you work at a university, you may also find materials related to data governance at your research office.

Reference

Data.NSW. (2021). “Module 3: Data Governance Model.” Data Governance Toolkit. https://data.nsw.gov.au/data-governance-toolkit-0/module-3-data-governance. Jump back