Data governance principles

Last updated: 2026-04-16

SampleTown is built to support research that touches ecosystems and communities with their own rights and interests in scientific data. The principles below guide how we design features and how we expect users to handle the records they create and share.

FAIR — the technical floor

Every export, every API, and every record is designed with the FAIR principles as the minimum bar: data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. MIxS-compliant import and export and GGBN-aligned permit vocabulary are concrete downstream consequences of this.

CARE — the ethical ceiling

FAIR is necessary but not sufficient when data concerns Indigenous communities. The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance add four requirements that live alongside FAIR:

• Collective benefit — data should support Indigenous inclusion and well-being.
• Authority to control — Indigenous peoples' rights in their own data are recognised.
• Responsibility — those working with Indigenous data have a duty to nurture respectful relationships.
• Ethics — minimising harm and maximising benefit guides the work.

OCAP® — Canadian context

For projects involving First Nations in Canada, SampleTown also recognises the OCAP® principles (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession) developed by the First Nations Information Governance Centre. These are community-level rights that sit above individual consent: a community retains the right to control how data about it is collected, used, stored, and shared.

Permits, consent, and the legal backdrop

Sample collection is regulated. Under the Nagoya Protocol and domestic laws in most countries, genetic resources require prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms with the provider country. In Canada, research ethics board approval under the Tri-Council TCPS2 Chapter 9 guidelines applies when research engages First Nations, Inuit, or Métis peoples.

SampleTown surfaces this through permits as first-class records. Every sample should be traceable to a collecting permit (and, where applicable, export, import, IRCC, PIC, MAT, community-agreement, ethics, or DUA documents). Permit vocabulary follows the GGBN Darwin Core permit extension.

What this means in practice

• Attach a permit to the project before samples are collected — not after.
• Use the Sensitive location flag for samples where precise coordinates could enable harm (poaching, cultural sites, community privacy).
• Record permit identifiers verbatim from the issuing authority — they travel with the data on MIxS export.
• When working with Indigenous partners, name the community as a project stakeholder and discuss data sharing before publication, not on the day of submission.

Limits of this tool

SampleTown does not substitute for legal advice, REB review, or community engagement. It is a record-keeping and export tool. The responsibility for ethical, legal, and culturally-appropriate conduct rests with the researcher and their institution.

Questions, suggestions, or corrections? Open an issue on the SampleTown issue tracker.