Frontiers | Editorial: Opportunities and challenges in reusing public genomics data

"Genomics data is accumulating in public repositories at an ever-increasing rate. Large consortia and individual labs continue to probe animal and plant tissue and cell cultures, generating vast amounts of data using established and novel technologies. The human genome project kick started the era of systems biology (Lander et al., 2001; Gates et al., 2021). Ambitious projects followed to characterize non-coding regions, variations across species, and between populations (Feingold et al., 2004; Sabeti et al., 2007; Auton et al., 2015). The cost reduction allowed individual labs to generate numerous smaller high-throughput datasets (Edgar et al., 2002; Parkinson et al., 2007; Metzker, 2010; Leinonen et al., 2011). As a result, the scientific community should consider strategies to overcome the challenges and maximize the opportunities to use these resources for research and the public good. In this Research Topic, we have elicited opinions and perspectives from researchers in the field on the opportunities and challenges of reusing public genomics data. The articles in this Research Topic converge on the need for data sharing while acknowledging the challenges that come with it. Two articles defined and highlighted the distinction between data and metadata. The characteristic of each should be considered when designing optimal sharing strategies. One article focuses on the specific issues surrounding the sharing of genomics interval data, and another on balancing the need for protecting pediatric rights and the sharing benefits...."