Impact of Social Sciences – Credit where credit is due: Research parasites and tackling misconceptions about academic data sharing

"The best instrument for giving “credit where credit is due” would be a much higher appraisal of data sharing by research communities via citations of data sets and the consideration of data “production” in career prospects, funding application and evaluations. With this end in mind, this “new class of research person” is exactly the opposite of a research parasite. This person would be someone who is essential to the scientific enterprise in an increasingly data-intensive and collaborative environment. Longo and Drazen’s editorial however shows that there is still a long way to go before we reach Open Science."