Proposals for discussion

Governance
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There are a number of proposals that the DataSHIELD Governance Theme wishes to present for discussion and voting upon. Brief descriptions/links to more detail and the possible voting options are presented at the bottom of this post.

Procedure

There is a 1 week discussion period which runs until 23:59 CEST on Tuesday 17th September, 2024. There then follows a one week voting period, which will run until 12:00 (midday) CEST on Wednesday 25th September 2024. Results will then be announced in the DataSHIELD Community session at the conference on Wednesday afternoon, and will subsequently be posted to the forum.

Discussion should take place on the forum. During the discussion period, it is possible to amend the proposal options (other than the ‘default’ option) or to introduce additional options.

For each proposal, there are currently TWO options: an option to accept the proposal, and a ‘default’ option (which means that the status quo remains). The options are presented in random order. NB it is possible that alternative options might also be proposed during the discussion period, hence the available options (and order) might change.

Proposals for discussion

Proposal 1 - Update constitution

  • Background: The Constitution has received some minor updates. These are primarily to replace the name “[Community Project]” with “DataSHIELD”, to correct some typos and grammatical errors, to update the section about the DataSHIELD Advisory Board, and to reduce the suggested minimal frequency of Theme meetings to once every 4 (from 3) months.

Proposal 2 - Accept accessory document: Social Contract

Proposal 3 - Accept accessory document: Diversity and Participation Statement

Proposal 4 - Accept accessory document: Code of Conduct

Proposal 5 - accept policy document: DataSHIELD risk response procedure

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Minor detail, but can we agree on either American or British English but not both? (My preference is British, fwiw)

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And for the risk response procedure I would perhaps suggest including an action for a ‘cascade’ of communication in the event that concern about a disclosure issue is warranted: in this step, project managers of known projects using DataSHIELD inform the PIs of the cohorts / biobanks etc allowing DataSHIELD to be used for research on their data about the disclosure issue. Otherwise I worry that we are reliant on data managers happening to read a notice on the forum. Another option would be to have an opt-in maiing list for emails about this sort of information.

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Hi Eleanor,

Thanks for the comments! A quick response - we are voting on the current proposals; there will be opportunities to work on improving them in the future (in both cases - if they are agreed or not), so it’s great to have your ideas :slight_smile:

Best wishes,

Andrei

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And… a reminder to all: please can Voting Members send me their votes before 12:00 (midday) CEST on Wednesday

You can do this either via email or via the forum (as a personal/direct message).

Thanks,

Andrei

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As announced at the conference, all proposals were passed and the wiki has now been updated to reflect this.