Saving and sharing research data: issues of policy and practice.

• Author: Davis, Peter

Late in November 2003 Wellington hosted a one-day conference on the policy and practice of saving and sharing research data. Sponsored by the Health Research Council, (1) the conference brought together speakers--both local and international--drawn from research funding agencies, government, and the scientific community. Over 70 attended, mainly from government agencies and policy ministries, but also with a smattering of researchers.

The meeting was prompted by two trends. Firstly, there is growing public investment in scientific research. Secondly, information and communication technologies are transforming the scientific enterprise and the management of research data, including its storage, access, analysis and distribution. Accordingly, the purpose of the meeting was threefold:

* to hear from key actors about the potential for saving and sharing research data

* to consider issues that follow from the OECD-backed principle that "publicly funded research data should be openly available to the maximum extent possible"

* to advance the issue in the science and science policy community.

The conference was opened by the Honourable John Tamihere, Minister of Statistics. The morning session (chaired by Steve Thompson, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of New Zealand) provided an international perspective from three keynote speakers, followed by reactions from two New Zealand scientists, with stakeholders and panellists in the afternoon session (chaired by Ray Delany, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Health Information Service). (2)

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS

The international dimension was provided by Dr Peter Dukes of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council, and Dr Deborah Mitchell and Sophie Holloway from the Australian National University, Canberra.

Peter Dukes discussed why the Medical Research Council has moved to develop an explicit policy of active data preservation. In part, this was a matter of prudent asset management. After decades of research funding and building up an impressive inventory of data sets, the Medical Research Council began to appreciate that it had a significant stewardship role for this substantial investment in the British scientific infrastructure. With the retirement of a generation of scientists came the realisation that resources of incalculable intellectual value were in danger of being lost for want of an adequate asset management policy (and reliance on the unguided, enlightened self-interest of scientists).

The speakers from the Australian National University arrived at a similar conclusion from a different starting point. The Australian National University already has a data archive for the social sciences, and Sophie Holloway is the university's first digital...