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OA Week 2017: Maximizing the value of research
By John Borghi and Daniella Lowenberg
Happy Friday! This week we’ve defined open data, discussed some notable anecdotes, outlined publisher and funder requirements, and described how open data helps ensure reproducibility. To cap off open access week, let’s talk about one of the principal benefits of open data- it helps to maximize the value of research.
Research is expensive. There are different ways to break it down but, in the United States alone, billions of dollars are spent funding research and development every year. Much of this funding is distributed by federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), meaning that taxpayer dollars are directly invested in the research process. The budgets of these agencies are under pressure from a variety of sources, meaning that there is increasing pressure on researchers to do more with less. Even if budgets weren’t stagnating, researchers would be obligated to ensure that taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted.
The economic return on investment for federally funded basic research may not be evident for decades and overemphasizing certain outcomes can lead to the issues discussed in yesterday’s post. But making data open doesn’t just refer to giving access other researchers, it also means giving taxpayers access to the research they paid for. Open data also enables reuse and recombination, meaning that a single financial investment can actually fund any number of projects and discoveries.
Research is time consuming. In addition to funding dollars, the cost of research can be measured in the hours it takes to collect, organize, analyse, document, and share data. “The time it takes” is one of the primary reasons cited when researchers are asked why they do not make their data open. However, while certainly takes time to ensure open data is organized and documented in such a way as to enable its use by others, making data open can actually save researchers time over the long run. For example, one consequence of the file drawer problem discussed yesterday is that researchers may inadvertently redo work already completed, but not published, by others. Making data open helps prevents this kind of duplication, which saves time and grant funding. However, the beneficiaries of open data aren’t just for other researchers- the organization and documentation involved in making data open can help researchers from having to redo their own work as well.
Research is expensive and time consuming for more than just researchers. One of the key principles for research involving human participants is beneficence– maximizing possible benefits while minimizing possible risks. Providing access to data by responsibly making it open increases the chances that researchers will be able to use it to make discoveries that result in significant benefits. Said another way, open data ensures that the time and effort graciously contributed by human research participants helps advance knowledge in as many ways as possible.
Making data open is not always easy. Organization and documentation take time. De-identifying sensitive data so that it can be made open responsibly can be less than straightforward. Understanding why doesn’t automatically translate into knowing how. But we hope this week we’ve given you some insight into the advantages of open data, both for individual researchers and for everyone that engages, publishes, pays for, and participates in the research process.
OA Week 2017: Policies, Resources, & Guidance
By John Borghi and Daniella Lowenberg
Yesterday, through quotes and anecdotes, we outlined reasons why researchers should consider making their data open. We’ll dive deeper into some of these reasons tomorrow and on Friday, but today we’re focused on mandates.
Increasingly funding agencies and scholarly publishers are mandating that researchers open up their data. Different agencies and publishers have different policies so, if you are a researcher, it can be difficult to understand exactly what you need to do and how you should go about doing it. To help, we’ve compiled a list of links and resources.
Funder Policy Guidance:
The links below outline US federal funding policies as well as non profit and private funder policies. We also recommend getting in touch with your Research Development & Grants office if you have any questions about how the policy may apply to your grant funded research.
US Federal Agency Policies:
http://datasharing.sparcopen.org/data
http://www.library.cmu.edu/datapub/sc/publicaccess/policies/usgovfunders
Global & Private Funder Policies:
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/General-Information/Open-Access-Policy
https://wellcome.ac.uk/funding/managing-grant/policy-data-software-materials-management-and-sharing
Publisher Policy Guidance:
Below are a list of publishers that oversee thousands of the world’s journals and their applicable data policies. If you have questions about how to comply with these policies we recommend getting in touch with the journal you are aiming to submit to during the research process or before submission to expedite peer review and comply with journal requirements. It is also important to note that if the journal you are submitting to requires data to be publicly available this means that the data underlying the results and conclusions of the manuscript must be submitted, not necessarily the entire study. These data are typically the values behind statistics, data extracted from images, qualitative excerpts, and data necessary to replicate the conclusions.
PLOS: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability
Elsevier: https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/research-data#Policy
Springer-Nature: https://www.springernature.com/gp/authors/research-data-policy/springer-nature-journals-data-policy-type/12327134
PNAS: http://www.pnas.org/site/authors/editorialpolicies.xhtml#xi
Resources, Services, and Tools (The How)
Thinking about and preparing your data for publication and free access requires planning before and during the research process. Check out the free Data Management Plan (DMP) Tool: www.dmptool.org
For researchers at participating UC campuses, earth science and ecology (DataONE), and researchers submitting to the UC Press journals Elementa and Collabra, check out Dash, a data publishing platform: dash.ucop.edu
We also recommend checking out www.re3data.org and https://fairsharing.org for standards in your field and repositories both in your field or generally that will help you meet funder and publisher requirements and make your data open.
If you are a UC researcher, click on the name of your campus below for library resources to support researchers with managing, archiving, and sharing research data
