DataCite Team Retreat 2025 – Philosophy, Persistence, and the Power of Trust

The global DataCite community is supported by a fully remote team of 21 members, located in 12 countries and speaking more than 20 languages. Once a year, the team meets somewhere in the world to interact in person, remind one another that we are humans rather than 2-D images on screens, and brainstorm topics of current and strategic importance.

The DataCite Team recently descended on Athens for our 2025 retreat, hoping that the goddess Athena would impart us with her wisdom.

Following the great philosophers of Greece, we spent many of the sessions asking ourselves some fundamental and existential questions: Who are we? Why are we here? What do we do? How do we differ from others? We explored these questions from the viewpoint of different stakeholders in the DataCite community, thinking about what they are trying to achieve, their day-to-day tasks and challenges in realizing these achievements, and how DataCite can continue to address these needs.

A key theme throughout our discussions is that our community and the services we offer go hand-in-hand. DataCite was founded and continues to operate today as a community of research organizations, and the services and activities that we support are driven by that ethos and mission.  

A related theme within our discussions was that of trust and trustworthiness and about DataCite's role as a trusted provider and partner for the research community. It reminded one of the authors of a famous quote from the Greek philosopher Sophocles that

"Trust dies but mistrust blossoms."

This is typically taken to mean that not only must trust be earned, but that this is not a one-time effort; it can take a long time to build, and then must be continually re-earned.

As an organization, trust is enshrined in our values. Being trusted by the community is not something the DataCite team takes lightly. We do not "rest on our laurels", we instead look to the goddess Nike and strive to continue being victorious in maintaining this trust.

Watch this space for the fruits of our labor at the retreat. In the meantime, if you have any questions about DataCite, please contact info@datacite.org.