Are You Ready for Open Data?
Tim Beardsley · BioScience · 2014
Are You Ready for Open Data?R egulations about access to research data can be complicated, but their arc through history is clear.Although some exemptions will be allowed, biologists supported by federal funds will soon have to get used to making their research data readily accessible not just to trusted colleagues but also to the public, including lawyers, journalists, and their competitors.Agencies are now drafting plans that will include data big and small.The change from traditional practice, which allowed researchers to act as the owners of their data, is potentially far reaching.Research agencies have long required that physical samples be made available to other scientists, and most agencies now require grantees to prepare data management plans and encourage sharing with other researchers.But the decision on when to share data was and is still mostly at the discretion of whoever generated them.The traditional deference started to change in 1999, when the Shelby amendment made the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) direct agencies to release data produced under an