Library:Research Data/Big Data and Data Sharing

Nowadays we are embracing more (and sometimes messier) data, which is having unprecedented implications on all fields. The success of a research project is measured increasingly by the data that is made available to the wider research community. This data makes the research verifiable and more visible, but can also contribute to other research projects. It can even be included in big science, which generally refers to large-scale scientific projects that are made possible through advancements in scientific processes and data sharing. By making use of datasets that have been created for other research projects, scientists can expand the scope of their research without having to go back and gather all of the smaller-scale data again.

The UK Data Archive outlines the value of sharing research data after a research project is over:

Encourages scientific enquiry and debate
Promotes innovation and potential new data uses
Leads to new collaborations between data users and data creators
Maximises transparency and accountability
Enables scrutiny of research findings
Encourages the improvement and validation of research methods
Reduces the cost of duplicating data collection
Increases the impact and visibility of research
Promotes the research that created the data and its outcomes
Can provide a direct credit to the researcher as a research output in its own right