Are you wondering about the policies of your favourite publisher around open data?  Check the website terms of use and author guidelines for policies.  If that doesn’t clear it up (and at the moment, it rarely does), head over to the IsItOpenData? site to see if someone has already asked your fav publisher for clarification.  You can browse enquiries and drill in to responses.

Don’t find the publisher you are looking for?  Or you find an enquiry but no response?  No worries: you are empowered to do something about it:

1. Register for a new account at the IsItOpenData? site
2. Make an Enquiry
3. Wait for a response
4. Follow up with a thank you!

Not only will you learn more about the journal’s open data policies, but you will do so in a way that also clarifies the issues for others.

ok, it isn’t quite that simple, but almost.  Here is a guide with more info. I recently used the system to send enquiries to three publishers.  Based on that experience, here are a few more tips:

• Start with a well-considered email.  In fact, you can base your email on this template that we developed after several rounds of feedback.
• Try to compose your email such that it isn’t mistaken for spam.  This probably means limiting links.
• Recognize that your email may be identified as spam anyway.  Follow up with a short email from your personal email account, alerting the recipient that they have been sent an IsItOpenData email and it may be in their spam filter.
• In the main email AND the personal email, highlight (in a central place in the main body of the email) that responses will be made public on the IsItOpenData site.  Emphasize this very clearly.  It is important, easily missed, and potentially very embarrassing if not clear.  I learned this the hard way.
• Put the organization name in email subject.  This will make your request easy to browse in the enquiry list.
• The “IsItOpenData” footer will automatically be appended to the bottom of your email
• Send the orignal email through the IsItOpenData site using the Make Enquiry link.  This email will be sent with an IsItOpenData reply address.  You will receive a copy of this email, I think as a bcc: recipient.
• If people reply to the original email, replies will be automatically posted onto the website.  IsItOpenData? will email you an alert that you received a response.  Note that these alerts may be considered spam by your email program.
• If publishers write back to your personal email address, send them an email thanking them and confirming that you can post their email to the website.  If yes, log back into the original query on IsItOpenData, and “FollowUp” with another post to them, thanking them, with their response appended to the bottom.  This will archive the response at IsItOpenData.  example.
• Be sure to sincerely thank the respondents.  Articulating these policies is not easy.
• You will be able to change the Enquiry Status of enquiries that you initiate.
• You know this already: keep the tone respectful, since the goal of IsItOpenData is to understand current policy.  Lobbying for more open policies is a different task for a different time and place.
• Questions?  Email the OKFN open science list.  We’re friendly and will help out 🙂  Or have feedback (questions, bugs, etc)? Email info@okfn.org.

That’s it!  If you have more tips or suggestions, please add them in the comments below.

ETA:  Tips about updates from IsItOpen