Data Access, Ownership, and Control: Toward Empirical Studies of Access Practices

Abstract

Issues surrounding data access, ownership, and control raise important issues for science policy. The new sociology of science has examined many features of scientific knowledge and practice, but has made only preliminary efforts to study data access. Building on ethnographic studies of scientific laboratories (and other constructivist work), this article suggests how the new sociology of science can study data access empirically. The article develops a perspective based on an analysis of the process of scientific production and the creation, packaging, and exchange of data streams. It also provides an example of how constructivist studies can contribute to policy analysis. © 1994, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.