Open access to data… a good idea that can be taken too far - Journal of Hand Therapy

Abstract:  Open access to data is an increasingly popular trend in the research community. It is based on the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other mechanisms of control. Funding agencies, particularly those that distribute public money often support the idea of open science, open access to data and accessible data repositories that can be used by multiple researchers as a means of optimizing the productivity and impact of publicly funded research. There are potential benefits for open access to data as this can increase discovery by allowing more researchers to conduct studies with the data and by allowing unique cross database linkages to answer questions that were not originally intended in the primary studies. Open access databases can be a valuable resource for graduate students and novice researchers who have not yet had an opportunity to collect extensive data; and can provide adequate samples to address diversity questions, rare health conditions and to conduct complex modeling that requires large sample sizes.