Research Data Governance, Roles, and Infrastructure

Abstract

This chapter explores the concepts, requirements, structures, and processes of data or information governance. Data governance comprises the principles, policies, and strategies that are commonly adopted, the functions and roles that are needed to implement these policies and strategies, and the consequent architectural designs that provide both a home for the data and, less obviously, an operational expression of policies in the form of controls and audits. This speaks to the ``What?'' and ``How?'' of data governance, but the ``Why?'' is what justifies the extraordinary efforts and lengths organizations must go to in the pursuit of effective data governance. This receives a fuller answer in this chapter; in brief, information is a valuable asset whose value is threatened both by loss of integrity, the principal internal threat, and by its potential for theft or leakage, compromising privacy, business advantage, and failure to meet regulatory requirements---the external threats. Internal and external threats are not quite so neatly distinguished in real life, as we shall see later in the chapter.