Most researchers agree that open access to data is the scientific ideal, so what is stopping it happening?

Bryn Nelson investigates why many researchers choose not to share. A recent discussion in Nature on the issue of access to scientific data – an excellent overview of the problem and associated challenges..

Data sharing: Empty archives

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090909/full/461160a.html

. . . discipline-specific successes are the exception rather than the rule in science. All too many observations lie isolated and forgotten on personal hard drives and CDs, trapped by technical, legal and cultural barriers — a problem that open-data advocates are only just beginning to solve.

. . . the power to prod researchers towards openness and consistency rests largely with those who have always had the most clout in science: the funding agencies, which can demand data sharing in return for support; the scientific societies, which can establish it as a precedent; and the journals, which can make sharing a condition of publication.