[sc-announce] How academic research centers can foster data sharing -- Science Commons blog

Donna Wentworth dwentworth at creativecommons.org
Tue Sep 2 19:11:55 EDT 2008


How academic research centers can foster data sharing

September 2nd, 2008 <http://sciencecommons.org/?p=550> by dwentworth

*PLoS Medicine*<http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=index-html&issn=1549-1676>today
published a new paper that provides useful guidelines for people at
academic health centers seeking to support scientific data sharing. The
paper, *Towards a Data Sharing Culture: Recommendations for Leadership from
Academic Health
Centers<http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050183>
*, discusses both the enormous benefits and obstacles to forging a research
culture that fosters data sharing, and outlines practical steps people can
take to set the process in motion.

Here's an excerpt summarizing the paper's recommendations:

*Recommendations for Academic Health Centers to Encourage Data Sharing*

   1. *Commit* to sharing research data as openly as possible, given privacy
   constraints. Streamline IRB, technology transfer, and information technology
   policies and procedures accordingly.
   2. *Recognize* data sharing contributions in hiring and promotion
   decisions, perhaps as a bonus to a publication's impact factor. Use concrete
   metrics when available.
   3. *Educate* trainees and current investigators on responsible data
   sharing and reuse practices through class work, mentorship, and professional
   development. Promote a framework for deciding upon appropriate data sharing
   mechanisms.
   4. Encourage data sharing practices as part of *publication policies*.
   Lobby for explicit and enforceable policies in journal and conference
   instructions, to both authors and peer reviewers.
   5. Encourage data sharing plans as part of *funding policies*. Lobby for
   appropriate data sharing requirements by funders, and recommend that they
   assess a proposal's data sharing plan as part of its scientific
   contribution.
   6. *Fund* the costs of data sharing, support for repositories, adoption
   of sharing infrastructure and metrics, and research into best practices
   through federal grants and AHC funds.
   7. *Publish* experiences in data sharing to facilitate the exchange of
   best practices.

 The paper, co-authored by Heather Piwowar, Michael Becich, Howard Bilofsky
and Rebecca Crowley, was written on behalf of the
caBIG<https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/>Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital
Workspace (you can read our previous
posts about caBIG by following this link<http://sciencecommons.org/?s=caBIG>
).
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