The Journal of Experimental Medicine editorialised on 4 July against authors 'dumping' data on them, stating that, effective immediately, the journal will now only accept "essential supporting information".

Have you got research data you would like to share, or make better known?

And would you like some help with that?

The UQ eResearch Lab's Seeding the Commons project, funded by the Australian National Data Service, aims to improve the discovery and re-use of UQ research data. Your dataset may be large or small, digital or paper-based - it doesn't matter.

Although the growing deluge of research data has got researchers and policy makers excited, very little data is actually being shared, according to Christine Borgman, in her as yet unpublished article The conundrum of sharing research data. She says:

Geoffrey Boulton et al make a compelling case for data sharing in a letter to The Lancet. Science as a public enterprise: the case for open data begins:

The Federal Government has just launched an open access and licensing framework to encourage governments to get their data out there. Publicly funded information should be available to the public and AusGOAL, the Australian Governments' Open Access and Licensing Framework, aims to make it easier for governments to comply.

The World Bank collects a lot of data and now they want to give it away. The Bank's Open Data initiative provides users with access to data, including more than 7,000 indicators from World Bank data sets. The Data Catalog lists available datasets, such as databases, pre-formatted tables and reports. Each listing includes a description of the data set and a direct link.

The World Bank collects a lot of data and now they want to give it away. The Bank's Open Data initiative provides users with access to data, including more than 7,000 indicators from World Bank data sets. The Data Catalog lists available datasets, such as databases, pre-formatted tables and reports. Each listing includes a description of the data set and a direct link.