New Recommendations on Open Data in Visual Social Research

The Recommendations for Open Data Practices in Visual Social Research have been published, developed within the project CodeVis – Code of Conduct for Open Data Practices in Visual Social Research and funded by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

The project was led by Prof. Katharina Lobinger and Dr. Anna Picco-Schwendener, both researchers at the Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication (ITDxC) of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, in collaboration with the Competence Center of Digital Law (CCdigitallaw) and team members Suzanna Farace-Marazza and Pasqualina Sibio.

The recommendations address the growing importance of open science while highlighting the specific challenges of sharing and reusing visual research data such as images, videos, and other sensitive materials. Unlike generic open data guidelines, the document focuses on the ethical, legal, and methodological complexities of visual data and offers practical guidance for researchers across disciplines. The document can be found here.

By providing a first dedicated framework for open data in visual social research, the document aims to support researchers, students, and institutions in fostering transparency and collaboration, while safeguarding participants’ rights and promoting a culture of responsible openness.

The initiative has also received follow-up funding by swissuniversities to make the recommendations more accessible, provide training content, and build a community of practices. A description of this new project can be found here.