Data sharing has always been part of scientific method, since it allows other researchers to verify and build on existing results.

"Science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open.

"We have to do better at producing tools to support the whole research cycle-from data capture and data curation to data analysis and data visualization. Today, the tools for capturing data both at the mega-scale and at the milli-scale are just dreadful.

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and policy makers excited, very little data is actually being shared, according to Christine Borgman, in her as yet unpublished article The conundrum of sharing research data.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: