CoreTrustSeal reviewers make an invaluable contribution to the trustworthy repository landscape and community building. By contributing their time and sharing expertise, the reviewers help to increase the trustworthiness of data repositories. To continue strengthening the community of reviewers, the teams of the FAIRsFAIR project and CoreTrustSeal organised a series of virtual workshops.
Interactive sessions
The series consisted of four interactive sessions with hands-on exercises and plenty of room for discussion. During the first session, participants learned about the wider certification environment and how the CoreTrustSeal foundation and the application process interact with each other. They also had the opportunity to get to know each other better by introducing themselves in smaller groups. To help professionalise the certification process, participants discussed the CoreTrustSeal requirements from the applicants’ point of view in the second session. Working in small groups, they analysed mock samples of applicant statements and clarified existing questions.
During the third session, reviewers discussed and identified various ways to improve coherence across CoreTrustSeal reviews. By discussing mock samples of applicant statements, they practised their reviewing skills and shared do’s and don’ts. At the closing session, participants were invited to think ahead and focus on quality, coherence and confidence in the review process. They were also invited to reflect on short pitches of the CoreTrustSeal Board members, focusing on improving the application management tool (AMT), the elaboration approach of CoreTrustSeal as a core and Preservation for a Designated Community.
Next steps
Thanks to this series of workshops, CoreTrustSeal reviewers honed their skills by discussing practical questions and exchanging ideas about the review process and repository certification. In addition, “the organisation of this workshop series by the FAIRsFAIR project and the CoreTrustSeal Board strongly contributes to the improvement of the repository certification landscape and coherence in reviewer practices” (Marjan Grootveld, a CoreTrustSeal reviewer). Last but not least, reviewers have shared their valuable ideas and suggestions which will be used in fine-tuning existing guidance, guidelines and developing training materials for (future) reviewers.
More information
Please contact Linas Čepinskas for more information about the workshop series.
