You err in citing the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) as a funding agency that forbids its grant-holders to use commercial data platforms such as figshare (Nature 546, 327; 2017). The SNSF strongly supports the sharing of data and open access to data, for the very reasons you mention.

The SNSF asks investigators to submit a data-management plan with their research proposals. Grant-holders may deposit their scientific data in any recognized digital archive (commercial or not) that meets the FAIR principles: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability (M. D. Wilkinson et al. Scientific Data 3, 160018; 2016). We refer applicants to the registry of recognized research-data repositories at www.re3data.org, which includes figshare.

We agree that the true costs of data openness must not be overlooked, which is why we routinely provide successful applicants with up to 10,000 Swiss francs (US$10,500) to cover these costs. More funds are available if applicants can justify the required budget in detail.

We are glad that Nature supports efforts such as ours to promote open access to data, by enforcing clear data standards and the use of repositories as a condition of publication.