Journal and Funder Mandates
NIH’s updated data sharing policy, effective January 2023, requires that anyone applying for an NIH grant must submit a data sharing plan, describing how their data and accompanying metadata will be shared. The policy additionally states that actual data sharing should be maximized--thus, data is not required to be shared, but ethical, legal, and technical justifications must be provided if eligible scientific data is not shared.
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration federal agency, provides an FAQ about data sharing for researchers who receive NOAA grants. This FAQ has very real questions, such as “What if I don’t want to share my data?”, “Is it acceptable to post only summarized data and products?”, “Can I get additional funding to share my data?”
The White House released a memo requesting that all federal agencies (not just NIH) develop data sharing plans by December 2025.
The publisher Springer has four types of data sharing policies that are associated with publishing articles in its various journals. Type 1 states that data sharing is encouraged, whereas Type 4 states that data sharing is required (with exceptions for sensitive data).
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Activity: What's in a Data Policy
1. Take a look at an example of a Springer journal that has a Type 4 data policy (i.e. data sharing is required): Scientific Data.
What is standing out to you about the contents of this policy?
What materials do they want to be shared?
How have they accounted for getting authors to making data open?
How are they respecting ethics and privacy? Look especially at the Human Data Checklist that authors must submit as a supplemental file.
2. If you have played any of the League of Data game levels at this point, do you see any connections to this journal’s data policy?
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Source
- Nelson, A., & Office of Science and Technology Policy. (2022, August 25). Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research [Memo]. Executive Office of the President. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf