Felicia LeClere says that as large grant makers like NSF and NIH have pushed for more open access to funded research data, a new model of data sharing is emerging. Research scientists, however, may be slow to accept this as a good thing. Here LeClere addresses the rationales for “protecting” data, including the legitimate and the misguided. She says that, aside from the laudable goal of protecting human subjects, “the remainder of excuses for not sharing data are rooted in the nature of academic rewards, the financing of science, and misunderstandings about data.”

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