1. Introduction to Data Sharing

What is Data?

“Facts, measurements, recordings, records, or observations about the world collected by scientists and others, with a minimum of contextual interpretation.

Data may be in any format or medium taking the form of writings, notes, numbers, symbols, text, images, films, video, sound recordings, pictorial reproductions, drawings, designs or other graphical representations, procedural manuals, forms, diagrams, work flow charts, equipment descriptions, data files, data processing algorithms, or statistical records.”

– Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information (CASRAI)

What is Data Sharing?

Data sharing is the practice of making data collected from a research project available to others (e.g., researchers; patients; citizens). Data sharing may involve sending data, receiving data, or both (Data Sharing Agreements, 2016). Once a researcher has published the results of their research, to be transparent and support reproducibility and innovation, when possible, all the information and data underlying the research, including the raw data, should be freely available for others to use (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services| Office of Research Integrity (ORI), n.d.).

Furthermore, code and software are now an important part of research data generation, usage, and analysis. There is an increasing awareness of the need to share code to facilitate reproducibility and validation of published work. For example, Nature journals have a policy with regard to sharing code.