Session Two: The Status of Access to Scientific Data

Roberta Balstad

Columbia University

18 April 2011

Why Access Is Important: Changing Approaches to Science

• Experimentation and testing

• Modeling and projections

• Now research is an evolving, data-intensive activity that draws on multiple data bases collected by many scientists, governments, and the private sector

• Data-intensive science relies upon open access to data from all sectors

Advantages of Data-Intensive Science

– Open access to data advances most types of science:• It improves descriptive, comparative, and observational science• It enriches modeling and prediction.• And it makes it easier to test and retest propositions using the same

data base; it thus facilitates both proving and falsifying theories.• Scientists are able to address broader questions than they could if

they were responsible for collecting their data as well as analyzing it;

• They can merge more disparate types of data and obtain a larger number of cases or incidences of any phenomena under study (e.g., meta-analysis);

– It “levels the playing field” for scientists from smaller or less wealthy countries, who are able to conduct data-intensive science with publicly available data

Traditional Data Access Policies

• Data were held to be the private property of the scientist

• Or data were seen as a national asset that should be kept “within the tribe”

• Or data were seen as a commodity that had economic value for the scientist or, more often, the government that sponsored the data collection

Benefits of Changing to Open Data Access Policies

• Scientific advance—both substantive and methodological

• Reductions in the cost of research

• Innovation and economic growth

Broad Implications of Limiting Access to Data

1) Higher research costs2) Lost opportunity costs 3) Barriers to innovation4) Less effective scientific cooperation and

education5) Sub-optimal quality of data6) Widening gap between OECD and developing

countries

Openness thus should be the default rule, subject only to legitimate and well-justified exceptions.

Legitimate Restrictions on Public Access to Data

• National security and public safety

• Personal privacy and confidentiality

• Proprietary rights of private-sector parties

Advances in International Data Access Policies

• International Geophysical Year (IGY)

• World Data Centers (WDC’s)

• World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

• Movement away from the commercialization impulse

• GEO Data Policy

• OECD Data Policy Guidelines

2005 GEO Data Sharing Principles

• There will be full and open exchange of data, metadata, and products shared within GEOSS, recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation.

• All shared data, metadata, and products will be made available with minimum time delay and at minimum cost.

• All shared data, metadata, and products being free of charge or no more than cost of reproduction will be encouraged for research and education.

GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan, adopted 16 February 2005(bold added)

Proposed GEOSS Guidelines

1) Promoting implementation of the principle of full and open exchange of data in accordance with the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles

2) Encouraging GEOSS users to reuse and re-disseminate shared data, metadata, and products

3) Ensuring consistency in the implementation of the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles with relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation

4) Implementing pricing policies consistent with the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles

5) Reducing the time delays for making data available through GEOSS

6) Promoting research and education uses of GEOSS data

7) Developing metrics and indicators for GEOSS data sharing activities

8) Developing effective coordination and outreach mechanisms for implementing the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles

OECD Recommentations (2007)

• Openness• Flexibility• Transparency• Legal conformity (with other existing laws)• Protection of intellectual property• Formal responsibility• Professionalism• Interoperability• Quality• Security• Efficiency• Accountability• Sustainability

The Changing Face of US Data Access Policies

• Commercialization of research data at NSF: Policy of Social and Economic Science Division in 1980’s

• USGCRP Data Policy in 1990’s

• NIH grantee data management plans required for large grants in 2005

• National Science Board’s new data access policy in 2011

Panelists in Session Two

• Implementing a data access policy in South Africa– Michael Kahn, Tswane University of Technology

• Developing a research data access policy in Chile– Patricia Munoz, CONICYT

• Need for a national data access policy in Tanzania– Leonard Mboera and Benjamin Mayala, National Institute for

Medical Research

• The data sharing policy of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)– Jack Hayes—NOAA, National Weather Service, and Permanent

U.S. Representative to the WMO