This paper is available online at www.jtaer.com DOI: 10.4067/S0718-1876201400030000

Abstract• Purpose: Governments create large amounts of data. However, the publication of open data is often cumbersome and there are no standard procedures and processes for opening data. This blocks the easy publication of government data. The purpose of this paper is to derive design principles for improving the open data publishing process of public organizations.• Design/methodology/approach: Action Design Research (ADR) was employed to derive design principles. The literature was used as a foundation, and discussion sessions with civil servants were used to evaluate the usefulness of the principles.• Findings: Barriers preventing easy and low-cost publication of open data were identified and connected to design principles, which can be used to guide the design of an open data publishing process. Five new principles are 1) start thinking about the opening of data at the beginning of the process, 2) develop guidelines, especially about privacy and policy sensitivity of data, 3) provide decision support by integrating insight in the activities of other actors involved in the publishing process, 4) make data publication an integral, well-defined and standardized part of daily procedures and routines, 5) monitor how the published data are reused.• Research limitations/implications: The principles are derived using ADR in a single case. A next step can be to investigate multiple comparative case studies and detail the principles further. We recommend using these principles to develop a reference architecture.• Practical implications: The design principles can be used by public organizations to improve their open data publishing processes. The design principles are derived from practice and discussed with practitioners. The discussions showed that the principles could improve the publication process.

Part 3: Open Government and TransformationInternational audienceThe opening of data is considered to provide many benefits. However, opening up data by public bodies is a complex and ill-understood activity. Although many public bodies might be willing to open up their data, they lack any systematic guidance. In this paper, guidance is provided by investigating the publishing processes at the Dutch Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), which owns governmental judicial research data. We developed guidance by providing 1) a list of issues that play a role in deciding whether to open data, 2) an alternative to completely publishing data (i.e. restricted access) and 3) solutions for overcoming some of the issues. The latter include dealing with privacy-sensitive data, deletion policies, publishing after embargo periods instead of not publishing at all, adding related documents and adding information about the quality and completeness of datasets. The institutional context should be taken into account when using the guidance, as opening data requires considerable changes of organizations

Within Europe detection rates vary considerably. The differences are too large to be explained purely by the ability of the police to solve cases. In a study covering nine European countries many other factors (external, organisational and technical factors) influencing the detection rate are identified and the influence is empirically made plausible. Next, a comparison is made between the punishment rate and the detection rate. The fact that punishment rates are more stable is explained by the difference between a crime oriented and an offender oriented approach. Also a link is made with the discretionary powers of the police and prosecution.