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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
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Appendix C
CFRS Advisory Note
1

International Symposium “The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries”

Researchers in developing countries, in particular, lack the norms and traditions of more open data sharing for collaborative research and for the development of common research resources for the benefit of the entire research community. This international symposium was designed to help address these and related issues, and to improve the access to and use of publicly funded scientific data.

Synopsis

Scientific research and problem solving are increasingly dependent for successful outcomes on access to diverse sources of data generated by the public and academic research community.

Global issues, such as disaster mitigation and response, international environmental management, epidemiology of infectious diseases, and various types of sustainable development concerns, require access to reliable data from many, if not all, countries. Digital networks now provide a near-universal infrastructure for sharing much of this factual information on a timely, comprehensive, and low-cost basis. There also are many compelling examples of data sharing in different areas that have yielded great benefits to the world community, although many more could be similarly facilitated.

Moreover, many OECD countries and some emerging economies already have implemented national policies and programs for public data management and access, while others are in the process of developing them. Nevertheless, a large number of developing countries do not have formal mechanisms in place.

At the same time, there are various specific barriers to the access and sharing of scientific data collected by governments or by researchers using public funding. Such obstacles include scientific and technical; institutional and management; economic and financial; legal and policy; and normative and socio-cultural aspects. Some of these barriers are possible to diminish or remove, whereas others seek to balance competing values that impose legitimate limitations on openness. Despite such challenges, however, there could be much greater value and benefits to research and society, particularly for economic and social development, from the broader use and sharing of existing factual data sources.

Researchers in developing countries, in particular, lack the norms and traditions of more open data sharing for collaborative research and for the development of common research resources for the benefit of the entire research community. Moreover, the governments in many developing countries treat publicly-generated or publicly-funded research data either as secret or commercial commodities. Even if the governments do not actively protect such data, they lack policies that

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1 See http://www.icsu.org/events/ICSUpercent20Events/international-symposium-the-case-for-international-sharing-of-scientificdate-a-focus-on-developing-countries.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
×

provide guidance or identify responsibilities for the researchers they fund as to under what conditions the researchers should make their research data available for others to use. Finally, developing countries frequently do not have data centers or digital repositories in place that researchers can submit their data for use by others. In those cases where such repositories do exist, they tend to be managed as black archives.

This international symposium helped addressing these and related issues, and to improve the access to and use of publicly-funded scientific data.

Organizers and hosts

The symposium was organized by the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO), and the U.S. Committee on Data for Science and Technology (US CODATA) under the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI), in consultation with the ICSU Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science (CFRS).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
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Page 162
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
×
Page 163
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: CFRS Advisory Note." National Research Council. 2012. The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/17019.
×
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The theme of this international symposium is the promotion of greater sharing of scientific data for the benefit of research and broader development, particularly in the developing world. This is an extraordinarily important topic. Indeed, I have devoted much of my own career to matters related to the concept of openness. I had the opportunity to promote and help build the open courseware program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This program has made the teaching materials for all 2,000 subjects taught at MIT available on the Web for anyone, anywhere, to use anytime at no cost. In countries where basic broadband was not available, we shipped it in on hard drives and compact disks. Its impact has been worldwide, but it has surely had the greatest impact on the developing world. I am also a trustee of a nonprofit organization named Ithaca that operates Journal Storage (JSTOR) and other entities that make scholarly information available at very low cost.

The culture of science has been international and open for centuries. Indeed, the scientific enterprise can only work when all information is open and accessible, because science works through critical analysis and replication of results. In recent years, as some scientific data, and especially technological data, have increased in economic value frequently has caused us to be far less open with information than business and free enterprise require us to be. Indeed, the worldwide shift to what is known as open innovation is strengthening every day.

Finally, since the end of World War II, the realities of modern military conflict and now terrorism have led governments to restrict information through classification. This is important, but I believe that we classify far too much information. The last thing we need today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is further arbitrary limitations on the free flow of scientific information, whether by policies established by governments and businesses, or by lack of information infrastructure. For all these reasons, the international sharing of scientific data is one of the topics of great interest here at the National Academies and has been the subject of many of our past reports. This is the primary reason why this symposium has been co-organized by the NRC's Policy and Global Affairs Division—the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) and the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI). The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium summarizes the symposium.

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