Open access to ancient human DNA: An Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) and University Libraries collaboration

Abstract

In 2014 the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) and the University of Adelaide Libraries embarked on a collaborative project funded through the Australian National Data Service’s (ANDS) Major Open Data Collections (MODC) program. The project sought to bring together distinct skill sets, combining discipline-specific knowledge with metadata and publishing knowledge, to enable the publication of ancient human genome and microbiome datasets generated from samples studied at ACAD in collaboration with other research groups. This case study describes the project and outlines the key benefits and outcomes of this collaboration.