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Credit data generators for data reuse

To promote effective sharing, we must create an enduring link between the people who generate data and its future uses, urge Heather H. Pierce and colleagues.
By
  1. Heather H. Pierce

    1. Heather H. Pierce is senior director of science policy and regulatory counsel at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington DC, USA.

  2. Anurupa Dev

    1. Anurupa Dev is lead specialist at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington DC, USA.

  3. Emily Statham

    1. Emily Statham is project manager of the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

  4. Barbara E. Bierer

    1. Barbara E. Bierer is faculty director of the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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Much effort has gone towards crafting mandates and standards for researchers to share their data1–3. Considerably less time has been spent measuring just how valuable data sharing is, or recognizing the scientific contributions of the people responsible for those data sets. The impact of research continues to be measured by primary publications, rather than by subsequent uses of the data.

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Nature 570, 30-32 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01715-4

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 05 June 2019: An earlier version of this article wrongly located Julie Dunning Hotopp at the University of Maryland in College Park.

References

  1. Institute of Medicine. Sharing Clinical Trial Data: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Risk (National Academies Press, 2015).

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  2. Bauchner, H., Golub, R. M. & Fontanarosa, P. B. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 315, 1238–1240 (2016).

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  3. Holdren, J. P. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2013).

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  4. Bierer, B. E., Crosas, M. & Pierce, H. H. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 1684–1687 (2017).

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  5. Data Citation Synthesis Group. Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles (ed. Martone, M.) (FORCE11, 2014).

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  6. Fenner, M. et al. Sci. Data 6, 28 (2019).

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  7. Cousijn, H. et al. Sci. Data 5, 180259 (2018).

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  8. Wimalaratne, S. M. et al. Sci. Data 5, 180029 (2018).

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  9. Wilkinson, M. D. et al. Sci. Data 3, 160018 (2016).

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  10. Pasquetto, I. V., Randles, B. M. & Borgman, C. L. Data Sci. J. 16, 8 (2017).

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Supplementary Information

  1. Participant list along with data-tracking process and action items

Subjects

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