Why the Current Insistence on Open Access to Scientific Data? Big Data, Knowledge Production, and the Political Economy of Contemporary Biology

Abstract

The collection and dissemination of data on human and nonhuman organisms has become a central feature of 21st-century biology and has been endorsed by funding agencies in the United States and Europe as crucial to translating biological research into therapeutic and agricultural innovation. Large molecular data sets, often referred to as "big data," are increasingly incorporated into digital databases, many of which are freely accessible online. These data have come to be seen as resources that play a key role in mediating global market exchange, thus achieving a prominent social and economic status well beyond science itself. At the same time, calls to make all such data publicly and freely available have garnered strength and visibility, most prominently in the form of the Open Data movement. I discuss these developments by considering the conditions under which data journey across the communities and institutions implicated in globalized biology and biomedicine, and what this indicates about how Internet-based communication and the use of online databases affect scientific research and its role within contemporary society.

Beyond the digital divide: Towards a situated approach to open data

“…Acord and Harley 2012;Calvert 2012;Caufield et al 2012;Leonelli et al 2013). These concerns are typically conceived as 'barriers' to be overcome, and a considerable amount of effort has gone into interrogating the means by which copyright and ownership requirements can be balanced against the benefits of placing data, as well as published articles, in the open domain (e.g.…”

Compliance Culture or Culture Change? The role of funders in improving data management and sharing practice amongst researchers

“…Other categorisations of drivers have been described (e.g Borgman 2012, Leonelli 2013 and policy documents enumerate a range of positive outcomes for RDS (OECD 2007, Royal Society 2012, Shearer 2015. The value of the categorisation of Fecher and Friesike is its basis in the analysis of the discourse of these documents as a means of interrogating the underlying motivations.…”

Introduction to the article collection ‘Translation in healthcare: ethical, legal, and social implications’

“…Much of the impetus behind the open access and open data movements is driven by a belief that increased availability of scientific data will lead to new knowledge and new applications [9]. New infrastructures and networks have also been developed to facilitate the sharing of scientific data and expertise such as the Biobanking and Biomolecular resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC) for international biobanking ([10], the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) network and the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) for genomic and clinical data [11].…”