Open Data for Global Science: A Review of Recent Developments in National and International Scientific Data Policies and Related Proposals

Abstract

The development of laws and public policies always lags behind the emergence of new technologies. That is certainly the case with the digital technology and network revolution. Governments have been trying to keep pace with the rapid changes in the digital age and to regulate the implementation and uses of these technologies at the national and international levels. Digital scientific data in the public sector are a significant part of this struggle by the public policy community to catch up. On the one hand, advances in digital technologies have made possible tremendous improvements in the quantity and quality of scientific data. It is not hyperbolic to state that the changes in data collection, management, dissemination, and their potential applications are creating a paradigm shift in the way research is done in most fields of science. On the other hand, much of that potential remains unexploited or underutilized. These shortcomings have resulted in large part from the lack of focus and funding by the science policy, funding, and management communities in support of the scientific data infrastructure and on the new research opportunities based on data science. Most of the innovations and models thus far have been established from the bottom up at the individual investigator and institutional level, rather than from the top down, although, as some of the articles in this volume demonstrate, there is now considerable activity and understanding of these issues among research managers and decision-makers