{"id":1694,"date":"2015-06-29T06:40:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T06:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/open-data-in-science-embracing-open-data-for-scientific-progress\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:42:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:42:40","slug":"open-data-in-science-embracing-open-data-for-scientific-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/open-data-in-science-embracing-open-data-for-scientific-progress","title":{"rendered":"Open Data in Science – Embracing Open Data for Scientific Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This post was originally published in 2015 and has been refreshed for Open Access Week 2017.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Until a few years ago, sharing research data was a completely unimaginable idea; researchers were wary of being scooped and publishing research findings was considered to be sufficient. But today, with the scholarly community focusing on open access, researchers and scientists have realized the benefits of and the need for making scientific data easily storable, accessible, and sharable. The concept of open access<\/a> certainly changed the publishing landscape, but more and more institutions, publishers, funders, and researchers are getting convinced about the benefits of having open data mandates. For example, the Open Data Institute in the UK identified over 250 companies that used open data to create innovative products and build their businesses<\/a>; the publishing company Elsevier talked about \u201ccreating a sharing ecosystem for research data\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and launched an open data pilot for about 40 journals<\/a>; some researchers, too, have actively spoken in favor of data sharing<\/a>, saying the benefits far outweigh the perceived risks. In this post, I will take a quick look at the data sharing policies various countries follow. Before that, a brief overview of what open data means and involves is in order.<\/p>\n

More about open data in science<\/strong><\/p>\n

Free availability of research data (e.g., figures, tables, graphs, equations, calculations, supplementary material) aids scientific progress by enabling others to build upon existing research or conduct reproducibility studies \u2013 both of which are critical to scientific progress. However, the problem is that a vast amount of scientific data is lost either because researchers are unwilling to share it, it is stored inappropriately, or it is locked away behind complex paywall restrictions. This seems to be changing across the globe as more and more people are accepting the concept of open data. Open data<\/strong>, as defined by the Open Data Institute<\/a>, is data that is freely available in a storable, accessible format for everyone, with a license that allows the free re-use, sharing, or distribution of it. Open data mandates<\/strong> refer to policy-level rules that require researchers to share their data based on institutional\/funder regulations. For example, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy<\/a> (OSTP) issued a memorandum on data sharing of federally funded research; private funders such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation<\/a> have set strict data sharing rules; the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPRSC)<\/a> in the UK follows one of the most talked about data sharing mandates; the Canadian government<\/a> and the Austrian Science Fund<\/a> too have open data policies in place. This list runs long. There are differences in the way in which these policies are introduced. Some agencies require researchers to share data after their manuscripts are published, while some others require it right from the grant application stage. Most policies apply to publicly or federally funded research (where funding comes from taxpayers or the government).<\/p>\n

The six stages of data sharing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Hahnel, CEO and founder of Figshare, who labeled 2015 \u201cthe year of open data mandates,\u201d identifies six stages of data sharing and observes that funders across the globe have passed the halfway mark of this six-stage route<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Six<\/p>\n

Open data mandates across the globe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the positive attitude towards data sharing, many governments and institutions in different parts of the world are implementing open data mandates to capitalize on the long-term benefits of data sharing through their own or external repositories. Let us take a look at some of these mandates.<\/p>\n