Open Data: A Perspective from an Applied Science Journal.

The world is moving towards a new paradigm where data, and not just publications are the product of scientific research. I will speak from the perspective of a journal editor, but also as a NASA earth scientist, working for an agency that adopted a highly successful open data policy several decades ago. In this new paradigm, data, rather than being the personal property of researchers, are part of the product colleagues, funders and the public expect from researchers. There are many reasons for the shift from a data ownership to a data sharing paradigm. These include the desire to evaluate the robustness of conclusions by evaluating many studies, to generalize conclusions by combining data from multiple studies and to test controversial results by repeating calculations. All of these motivations played into Ecological Applications’ decision to require data associated with papers to be available to peer reviewers and to readers of the journal. The most important reason, though, for our decision is transparency and the credibility that this brings. When research is used to inform policy and management, as many of Ecological Applications papers are, it is increasingly important and expected that the data supporting the conclusions be available to all parties. While several practical issues have arisen with mandatory data sharing, they have all been of a regulatory nature and essentially all authors have found opening up data to be a source of opportunity for collaboration, additional citations and new opportunities. The journal has policies that accommodate regulatory requirements and so, overall, the open data policy has been a great success.