Open Data For Open Science: Aspirations, Realities, Challenges And Opportunities

This chapter examines the emergent approaches to online sharing of the data underpinning scientific publications. Such data is referred to as open scientific data. Four key drivers are identified: (i) Changing societal approaches and increasing expectations that the outcomes of publicly-funded research be freely available; (ii) the emergence of data journals; (iii) changing policies of research funders and publishers; and (iv) the requirements for research organisations and individual researchers to comply with these policies and introduce research data management plans. In this chapter, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is used as a case study to show how open scientific data can be successfully managed and used, in innovative ways, to deliver open education in particle physics. Finally, this chapter identifies three challenges that require attention of research funders and scientific organisations. First, the challenge to devise a minimum standard for open scientific data. Second, the challenge to develop incentives for researchers and librarians, and third, the challenge to reconceptualise the ownership of open scientific data. This chapter argues that addressing these challenges can advance the preservation and sharing of open scientific data for the global public good.