The Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House recently released a memorandum about expanding pubic access to the results of federally funded research. In addition to scholarly publications, federal agencies are making serious efforts to increase the sharing of research data. The memorandum states that, “digitally formatted scientific data resulting from unclassified research supported wholly or in part by Federal funding should be stored and publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze.” To this end, federal agencies must create a public access plan that includes the following mandates:

• Maximize public access to data while protecting personal privacy and confidentiality, intellectual property, and balancing costs with long-term benefits;
• Ensure that investigators create data management plans that describe strategies for long-term preservation of and access to data;
• Costs of data management are included in proposal budgets;
• Ensure that the merits of data management plans are properly evaluated;
• Implement mechanisms to ensure that investigators comply with their data management plans and policies;
• Promote deposition of data into publicly accessible repositories;
• Encourage private and public cooperation to improve data access and interoperability;
• Develop and standardize approaches to data citation/attribution;
• Support training in data management best practices;
• Assess needs and strategies for the long-term preservation of data.

Potential increased citation of source papers (Piwowar, 2007)

In a 2010 study on open data in the UK, researchers identified the following as benefits to themselves:

1. "Increasing the efficiency of research, for example by avoiding duplication of effort, by making
   research tools, protocols and examples of good practice more readily available, by reducing
   the costs of data collection, and by promoting the adoption of open standards.
2. Promoting scholarly rigour and enhancements to the quality of research, for example by
   making information about working methods, protocols and data more readily available for
   peer review and scrutiny, and enhancing the scope and quality of the material published in
   the scholarly record, including negative results.
3. Enhancing visibility and scope for engagement, with opportunities for wider engagements,
   across the research community and other, broader, communities, including new possibilities
   for ‘citizen science’ and for public engagement with the processes and results of research.
4. Enabling researchers to ask new research questions, and to address questions in new ways
   through re-use of data and other material created by other researchers, supporting the
   development of ‘data-intensive science’ through the ability to aggregate and re-analyse data
   from a wide range of sources.
5. Enhancing collaboration and community-building, for example by providing new
   opportunities for collaboration across institutional, national and disciplinary boundaries, and
   for the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
6. Increasing the economic and social impact of research, innovation in business and public
   services, and the return on the public investment in research, by enabling individuals and
   organisations beyond the research community to engage with a wider range of research
   resources and materials."
    

 Source: Univeristy of Edinburgh

Community standards and funder mandates for data sharing vary by discipline and data type. Here are a few general observations:

• Most funding agency data sharing policies ask that data from projects be shared "within a reasonable time," understanding that what constitutes a "reasonable time" will vary from project to project.
• Some funding agencies (listed below) have given a specific time period for when they expect data to be shared or made accessible, as a guideline to help researchers develop their policies.
• Many funding agencies also allow for embargo periods for political/commercial/patent reasons, but they ask that these cases are explained in the data management plan.

Adapted from: GeorgiaTech

Researchers have a variety of different tools and resources available to enable them share their research data. The different methods each have their own benefits and drawbacks. When deciding on methods for sharing your data, consider the benefits and drawbacks of each. 

Adapted from: GeorgiaTech