POV: Why Science Should Be (Even More) Open | BU Today | Boston University

Sharing research data strengthens science in several ways. At a basic level, it can help identify errors and even fraud, and assist scientists attempting to reproduce the original study. In other cases, the data can be used in new and original ways, especially important when gathering new data would be problematic, as in studies of fragile ecosystems or when redoing a study would be prohibitively expensive. Sharing data can also provide new avenues for prestige and recognition in the scientific community; the original researcher would be acknowledged in any new research based on the data, and at least one study has shown that sharing the data behind an article increases the article’s citation rate. As with open access, sharing of data is beginning to be mandated by funding agencies. The NIH requires in many cases that recipients of grants share their final research data, and in 2011 the National Science Foundation (NSF) mandated that all grant applications include a data management plan, with policies for the reuse and redistribution of data. These data-sharing requirements are going to increase. Last February, a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum directed all federal agencies with more than $100 million in research expenditures to develop plans to make the published results, and in many cases the data, of the research they fund freely available. In response to these developments, the culture of science needs to shift toward more open sharing of research data. It won’t be easy; legitimate concerns about issues such as confidentiality and ownership of intellectual property must be addressed. There will be resistance because many scientists feel territorial about their data, and worry the data might be misunderstood or misused if made public. Major research institutions such as BU need to support scientists in making this change. The University is already doing some things, but needs to do more ...  Because appropriate repositories don’t yet exist for all data, there are some cases where the researcher’s institution needs to step up and provide a home for the data. The Association of Research Libraries, with others, has put forward a strong proposal for a Shared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE), 'a network of digital repositories at universities, libraries, and other research institutions across the United States that will provide long-term public access to federally funded research articles and data.'  BU should support the SHARE project, and a good first step would be expanding the capabilities of OpenBU, our institutional repository, so that it can support research data as well as articles ... "