Access to
research data critical to advance science for public good
Open access to data resulting from
publicly funded research is essential to advance science and the
public good, but lack of consistency in government policies and
within the scientific community hinders the open-access ideal,
according to a report in the March 19 issue of the journal
Science. (An International Framework to Promote Access to
Data, by Peter Arzberger and others). Open access leads to greater
long-term economic benefits, to better-informed government
decision-makers and to accelerated progress in science itself, the
report states. The report's international team of authors studied
data-access issues on behalf of the 30-nation Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
"Countries
around the world have invested heavily in the promise of
e-science and the emerging cyberinfrastructure, which will
allow researchers to access data archives, instruments,
computers and expertise without regard to geographic
location," said Peter Arzberger, Director of Life Sciences
Initiatives at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD),
and lead author on the report. "On the other hand, the
technological capabilities bring the social and political
challenges to the forefront." The report's U.S. authors were
supported by the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the independent federal agency
that supports fundamental research and education across all
fields of science and
engineering.
At a recent
meeting of the OECD Committee for Science and Technological
Policy at Ministerial level, national science ministers,
including John Marburger, director of the U.S. Office of
Science and Technology Policy, adopted a Declaration on Access
to Research Data from Public Funding. The declaration is based
on the authors' full report to the OECD, on which the
Science paper is based, and invites the OECD to
develop a set of guidelines to ensure "optimal, cost-effective
access" to digital research data resulting from publicly
funded
research.
"OECD guidelines
will clear up a lot of confusion about the way publicly funded
research data should be made accessible," said Peter
Schroeder, the group's Co-chair and Coordinator of Information
Policy at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and
Science. "Individual researchers tend to lose interest in data
and data infrastructures beyond the scope of their current
project. Therefore it is important that governments establish
the principal rules for our global science system."
The authors both
looked at the policies that governments need to consider and
identified a framework that the research community should
examine to achieve the vision of open access to data. The
report points out inconsistent data-access policies among
nations, among agencies in the same country and among
scientific disciplines.
The authors lay
out common principles for access to publicly funded research
data and call for an international effort by scientists,
funding agencies and other international and national bodies
to overcome the barriers to this ideal. The ultimate goal,
according to the authors, is to make data sharing and the
principle of open access the rule rather than the exception.
"This is a positive first step toward public accessibility to
publicly funded science," said Kerri-Ann Jones, Director of
NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.
"Science today is an international enterprise and open access
to data must be addressed globally."
As policy for
its grantees, NSF expects and encourages the publication of
research results and the sharing of data and other collections
amassed during the work. However, investigators do retain
intellectual property rights to their work, allowing them to
hold copyrights or pursue patents. Read the Final Communique
of the OECD Committee for Science and Technological Policy at
Ministerial Level at the OECD
website.
NSF is an
independent United States federal agency that supports
fundamental research and education across all fields of
science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly
USD5.58 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants
to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF
receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and
makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards over
USD200 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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