Accessible means that access to research data and records by interested parties is enabled through defined processes. These processes may include authentication and authorisation steps to restrict or mediate access to appropriate parties.

Authentic means that research data and records are a true and accurate product or reflection of research processes with no attempts to falsify, mislead or obfuscate

Curate means to select, organise and present information in ways that support interpretation. Appropriate curation of research data and records is informed by accepted disciplinary practices and standards and will differ depending on the type of research data and records involved.

Data management plan means a document that outlines how research data and records will be managed through the course of a research project, including details such as project descriptions, software and systems being used, storage locations, security controls and retention arrangements.

Facilities means physical or virtual locations intended for a defined purpose. For the storage and management of research data and records, this may consist of a combination of physical space, equipment, hardware, software and the resources required to support these.

Findable means the research data or records are discoverable to interested and authorised parties for reuse. Characteristics of findable research data or records include assigning metadata that describes the content of the research data or records, attaching a persistent identifier such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and indexing/making the data searchable through disciplinary portals.

Interested parties means any parties who are seeking access to research data this may be for the purposes of academic review, ethical or compliance review, or data reuse for further research.

Interoperable means that the research data or records can be effectively integrated with other data or be utilised by different applications or workflows (such as for analysis, storage or processing). To achieve this, community-agreed, published standards are used within and to describe the research data and records.

Mediated access means access that is determined on a case-by-case basis by an individual responsible for the data, who is able to assess the value and risk associated with data sharing.

Metadata means information that provides contextual details or defining characteristics about data. Meaningful metadata is dependent on the type of research data it is describing, allowing data to be interpreted accurately and appropriately. Metadata may describe, for example, where the data originated, how the data was generated and processed, when the data was collected and by whom.

Ownership means the legal or moral rights that gives individuals, groups or organisations the authority to determine storage, retention, disposal, publication or licensing arrangements.

Personal information means any information regarding an individual whose identity can be ascertained from that information.

Research data means any information, facts or observations that have been collected, recorded or used during the research process for the purpose of substantiating research findings. Research data may exist in digital, analogue or combined forms and such data may be numerical, descriptive or visual, raw or processed, analysed or unanalysed, experimental, observational or machine generated. Examples of research data include: documents, spreadsheets, audio and video recordings, transcripts, databases, images, field notebooks, diaries, process journals, artworks, compositions, laboratory notebooks, algorithms, scripts, survey responses and questionnaires.

Research record means documents containing information of any kind and in any form created or received by an organisation or person for use in the course of their research. Records often validate the provenance, authenticity and ethical collection of research data. Records associated with the research process include correspondence, grant applications, ethics applications, authorship agreements, technical reports, research reports, laboratory notebooks or research journals, master lists, signed consent forms, and information sheets for research participants.

Research student means is any student involved in conducting research under the auspices of the University of Melbourne. This includes graduate researchers and coursework students enrolled at the University of Melbourne, and visiting students enrolled with other institutions.

Researcher means any individual involved in conducting research under the auspices of the University of Melbourne who is not a research student. This includes staff, honorary staff and visiting researchers.

Retention means the long-term storage of research data and records after the completion of a research activity/project, for the purposes of meeting legal obligations or other purposes.

Reusable means being able to be utilised by others for replication of research findings or additional research applications, such as linkage with other data. This can be achieved by having standard data usage licences, provenance information and the use of domain-relevant community standards used throughout the research data and records.