WASHINGTON — Though digital technologies and high-speed communications have significantly expanded the capabilities of scientists — allowing them to analyze and share vast amounts of data — these technologies are also raising difficult questions for researchers, institutions, and journals. Because digital data can be manipulated more easily than other forms, they are particularly susceptible to distortion. Questions about how to maintain the data generated, who should have access, and who pays to store them can be controversial.
Maintaining the integrity and accessibility of research data in a rapidly evolving digital age will take the collective efforts of universities and other research institutions, journals, agencies, and individual scientists, says a new report from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, which recommends principles to guide these stakeholders in generating, sharing, and maintaining scientific data.
Research institutions need to ensure that every investigator receives appropriate training in conducting research and managing data responsibly, the report says. And these institutions, along with professional societies, journals, and research sponsors, should develop and disseminate standards for ensuring the integrity of research data and update specific data-management guidelines to account for new technologies. After an investigation by the Journal of Cell Biology revealed that a significant number of images submitted to them had been inappropriately manipulated, for example, the journal issued guidelines on acceptable and unacceptable ways to alter images. Ultimately, though, researchers themselves are responsible for ensuring the integrity of their research data, said the committee that wrote the report.
The report recommends that researchers — both publicly and privately funded — make the data and methods underlying their reported results public in a timely manner, except in unusual cases where there is a compelling reason not to do so, such as concern about national security or health privacy. In such cases, researchers should publicly explain why data are being withheld. But the default position should be that data will be shared — a practice that allows data and conclusions to be verified, contributes to further scientific advances, and allows the development of beneficial goods and services.
Research data can be valuable for many years after they are generated — for verifying results and generating new findings — but maintaining high-quality and reliable databases can be costly, the report observes. Researchers should establish data-management plans at the beginning of each research project that provide for the stewardship of data, and research sponsors should recognize that financial support for data professionals is an appropriate part of supporting research. Professional societies should provide investigators with guidance about which data should be saved for the long term and which can be discarded.
The report was sponsored by the National Research Council, U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASA, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Energy, Eli Lilly and Co., Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Nature Publishing Group, the Rockefeller University Press, New England Journal of Medicine, American Chemical Society, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, and IEEE. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter.
Copies of ENSURING THE INTEGRITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND STEWARDSHIP OF RESEARCH DATA IN THE DIGITAL AGE are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at HTTP://WWW.NAP.EDU. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).
[ This news release and report are available at HTTP://NATIONAL-ACADEMIES.ORG ]
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy
COMMITTEE ON ENSURING THE UTILITY AND INTEGRITY OF RESEARCH DATA IN A DIGITAL AGE
DANIEL KLEPPNER1 (CO-CHAIR)
Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge
PHILLIP A. SHARP1,2 (CO-CHAIR)
Institute Professor
David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge
MARGARET A. BERGER
Professor of Law
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn, N.Y.
NORMAN M. BRADBURN
Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
University of Chicago
Chicago
JOHN I. BRAUMAN1
J.G. Jackson – C.J. Wood Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
Department of Chemistry
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif.
JENNIFER T. CHAYES
Managing Director
Microsoft Research, New England
Cambridge, Mass.
ANITA K. JONES3
Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University of Virginia
Charlottesville
LINDA P.B. KATEHI3
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
NEAL F. LANE1
Malcolm Gillis University Professor of Physics and Science Policy, and
Senior Fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Rice University
Houston
W. CARL LINEBERGER1
E.U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and
Fellow
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
University of Colorado
Boulder
RICHARD E. LUCE
Vice Provost and Director of Libraries
Emory University
Atlanta
THOMAS O. MCGARITY
Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Administrative Law
School of Law
University of Texas
Austin
STEVEN M. PAUL2
Executive Vice President for Science and Technology, and
President
Lilly Research Laboratories
Eli Lilly and Co.
Indianapolis
TERESA SULLIVAN
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and
Professor of Sociology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
MICHAEL S. TURNER1
Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, and
Chair
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Chicago
Chicago
J. ANTHONY TYSON1
Distinguished Professor of Physics
Department of Physics
University of California
Davis
STEVEN WOFSY
Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.
RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF
TOM ARRISON
Study Director
1 Member, National Academy of Sciences
2 Member, Institute of Medicine
3 Member, National Academy of Engineering
