FAQ

What are benefits of data sharing?

  • Funders are increasingly mandating data sharing. The Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust and many others are requiring that Individual Patient-Level Data from research they fund is shared. In addition, the updated NIH Data Sharing Policy went into effect January 2023. For many funders, data sharing costs are an allowable research expense and maybe built into future grant proposals and billed to current grants.
  • Top journals such as the NEJM, BMJ, Lancet and other ICMJE journals require that the data sharing statement isĀ made at the time of trial registration. Journals are publishing the data sharing statement at the time of publication.
  • Moral obligations (owe it to trial participants). We owe it to participants of clinical trials who have volunteered to take part in this research for their data to be leveraged to maximize scientific knowledge. Surveys show that most participants want their data to be shared if adequate safeguards are in place.
  • Increase citations. Sharing detailed clinical research data is associated with increased citation rate.


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