Can we have open data without open access?

Open access is driven by the motivations to make research available to everyone, increase the impact of research, and create innovation. These same motivations drive the call for open data. Yesterday Velichka Dimitrova, Project Coordinator of Open Economics at the Open Knowledge Foundation, asked the question “Can we have open data without open access?”

According to Geoffrey Boulton, Regius Professor Emeritus of the University of Edinburgh and Chair of the Working Group of the Science as an Open Enterprise report, the answer is no. Mr. Boulton contended that publishing and data are invariable linked, since data forms the evidence and maintains the self-correction and credibility of science.

In Open your minds and share your results, Mr. Boulton stated the following:

Data curation should be viewed as a necessary cost of research. Creative data generation should be a source of scholarly esteem and a criterion for promotion. We need a revolution in the role of the science library, with data scientists supporting the management of data strategies for both institutions and researchers. We need strategic funding to develop software tools to automate and simplify the creation and exploitation of data sets. And above all, we need scientists to accept that publicly funded research is a public resource.

 

There is work ahead in developing a successful model for open data and it may be more complex than the creation of open access repositories. The understanding on how to make data widely available is limited, but the experiences of the open access movement provide lessons to help achieve a greater understanding of how to make open data a reality.

Read Dimitrova’s full post here.

The movement for open data has been growing in recent years. Last May a group at The University of North Texas drafted The Denton Declaration, an open data manifesto. In November, Archives of Scientific Psychology, a new journal with open methods, open data, and open access policies began accepting submissions. For those interested in learning more about open data Science Commons, now dissolved, created a protocol for implementing open access data in 2007 and Creative Commons has information about using CC licenses with data.