The case for international sharing of scientific data : : a focus on developing countries : proceedings of a symposium / / Kathie Bailey Mathae and Paul F. Uhlir, editors ; Committee on the Case of International Sharing of Scientific Data, a focus on developing countries, Board on International Scientific Organizations, Board on Research Data and Information, Policy and Global Affairs ; in collaboration with the Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science, International Council for Science ; National Research Council of the National Academies.

• Author: International Symposium on the Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data Washington, D.C.),
• TeilnehmendeR: Mathae, Katherine Bailey,; Uhlir, P. F. 1954-; National Research Council (U.S). Committee on the Case of International Sharing of Scientific Data,; National Research Council (U.S.). Board on International Scientific Organizations,; National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Research Data and Information,; National Research Council (U.S). Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science,
• Place / Publishing House: Washington, District of Columbia : : National Academies Press,, [2012]; 2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (179 pages) :; illustrations
• Notes: Symposium held April 18-19, 2011.

"The theme of this international symposium is the promotion of greater sharing of scientific data for the benefit of research and broader development, particularly in the developing world. This is an extraordinarily important topic. Indeed, I have devoted much of my own career to matters related to the concept of openness. I had the opportunity to promote and help build the open courseware program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This program has made the teaching materials for all 2,000 subjects taught at MIT available on the Web for anyone, anywhere, to use anytime at no cost. In countries where basic broadband was not available, we shipped it in on hard drives and compact disks. Its impact has been worldwide, but it has surely had the greatest impact on the developing world. I am also a trustee of a nonprofit organization named Ithaca that operates Journal Storage (JSTOR) and other entities that make scholarly information available at very low cost. The culture of science has been international and open for centuries. Indeed, the scientific enterprise can only work when all information is open and accessible, because science works through critical analysis and replication of results. In recent years, as some scientific data, and especially technological data, have increased in economic value frequently has caused us to be far less open with information than business and free enterprise require us to be. Indeed, the worldwide shift to what is known as open innovation is strengthening every day. Finally, since the end of World War II, the realities of modern military conflict and now terrorism have led governments to restrict information through classification. This is important, but I believe that we classify far too much information. The last thing we need today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is further arbitrary limitations on the free flow of scientific information, whether by policies established by governments and businesses, or by lack of information infrastructure. For all these reasons, the international sharing of scientific data is one of the topics of great interest here at the National Academies and has been the subject of many of our past reports. This is the primary reason why this symposium has been co-organized by the NRC's Policy and Global Affairs Division the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) and the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI). The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium summarizes the symposium."--Publisher's description.

Table of Contents

Welcoming remarks -- Background on purpose of the symposium: historical perspective -- Why is international scientific data sharing important? -- Discussion of part one by symposium participants -- Overview of scientific data policies -- Implementing a research data access policy in South Africa -- Access to research data and scientific information generated with public funding in Chile -- The management of health and biomedical data in Tanzania: the need for a national scientific data policy -- The data-sharing policy of the world meterological organization: the case for international sharing of scientific data -- Discussion of part two by symposium participants -- Developing the rice genome in China -- Data sharing in astronomy -- Sharing engineering data for failure analysis in airplane crashes: creation of a web-based knowledge system -- Integrated disaster research: issues around data -- Understanding Brazilian biodiversity: examples where more data sharing makes the difference -- Social statistics as one of the instruments of strategic management of sustainable development processes: compelling examples -- Remote sensing and in situ measurements in the global earth observation system of systems -- Discussion of part three by symposium participants -- Data sharing: limits and barriers and initiatives to overcome them: an introduction -- Consideration of barriers to data sharing -- Artificial barriers to data sharing: technical aspects -- Scientific management and cultural aspects -- Political and economic barriers to data sharing: the African perspective -- Discussion of part four by symposium participants -- Government science policy makers' and research funders' challenges to international data sharing: the role of UNESCO -- International scientific organizations: views and examples -- Improving data access and use: an industry perspective -- Production and access to scientific data in Africa: a framework for improving the conribution of research institutions -- The ICSU world data system -- Libraries and improving data access and use in developing regions -- Developing a policy framework to open up the rights to access and reuse research data for the next generation of researchers -- Discussion of part five by symposium participants.