CoreTrustSeal certificate awarded!
We proudly announce that the QsarDB repository was awarded the CoreTrustSeal certificate of trustworthy data repository.
For the CoreTrustSeal certification, the repository must provide evidence that it meets 16 core requirements. These requirements ensure that it follows best practices and that its data is carefully managed, curated, and archived for long-term preservation. The certificate is valid for three years. QsarDB is the first repository from Estonia to receive this certificate.
This certificate is an important milestone for the QsarDB repository because the certification gives us confidence in the policies and processes followed in preserving QSAR models and data. It is vital for our users and data depositors because it shows that QsarDB is a trustworthy repository according to an independent authority, and they can be confident that QSAR data deposited to QsarDB is safe for long-term preservation. In addition, funders and publishers increasingly require that all relevant research data must be open and published at a trusted repository according to the FAIR principles. The certification helps to assure that this valuable collection of QSAR models will be open and accessible in the foreseeable future.
CoreTrustSeal is an international, community-based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. They have developed a set of Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements to certify repositories at the core level. At the time of the writing, there are 91 certified repositories worldwide covering many institutions and disciplines.
Acknowledgements. The EOSC-Nordic (European Union’s Horizon 2020) project repository support program kindly helped us with self-assessment for the CoreTrustSeal certification. We consulted with Mari Kleemola, Mari-Elisa Kuusniemi and Tuomas Alaterä from the EOSC-Nordic team regarding questions about the requirements, policies and processes.