Sharing biological data: why, when, and how

The importance of adherence to international standards for depositing open data in public repositories

“…CC BY is one of the less restrictive and involves attribution, CC BY-SA needs licensing under identical conditions, CC BY-ND does not allow derivative works, CC-BY-NC does not allow commercial uses and CC BY-ND-NC does not allow neither derivative works nor commercial uses [ 24 ]. It has been recommended [ 25 ] that a CC0 license (a universal public domain dedication; https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0 ) should be used for data sharing.…”

“…In addition, in certain contexts, it is advisable the use of controlled-access repositories, in which the researchers need to apply to get access to the data. In specific cases of highly sensitive information, there is the option for the submission of processed data, such as summary statistics [ 25 , 28 ]. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requires, since 2017, that articles reporting the results of clinical trials should include a data sharing statement [ 30 ].…”

“…In Table 1 we present a selection of major data repositories (some of them are for general use and others are oriented to specific applications or data types), in order to provide options to the readers to submit their raw results [ 25 ]. Among them, the databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) contain several billion records; some of the largest databases from NCBI are the ones for DNA and RNA sequences (more than 429 million records), gene expression profiles (more than 128 million records), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; more than 720 million records) and protein sequences (more than 874 million records) [ 33 ].…”

“…There is a need for more training about open science and data science [ 25 ], particularly in emerging economies, and a larger number of open data repositories are very needed in these regions of the world [ 40 , 41 ]. In this context, the adequate implementation of standards for reporting of raw data for specific fields, such as the MIAME (Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment) [ 14 ], is key in order to provide an adequate organization of files and inclusion of key metadata, with information such as description of the individuals/samples, experimental conditions and analyses [ 20 ].…”

“…Funding agencies and academic institutions from multiple countries are invited to consider the importance of open data in their policies and incentives [ 41 , 42 ]. Although it is a common practice in several journals, editors and peer reviewers of even more international publications should enforce the guidelines asking authors of manuscripts to deposit raw data [ 12 ] and scientists from around the world are invited to deposit their data in open repositories [ 20 , 25 , 43 ]. These efforts could be particularly catalyzed by initiatives such as microattribution [ 44 , 45 ], which provides researchers incentives to openly share their data to the public domain, allowing not only open data sharing but also the possibility of reaching new scientific conclusions that would otherwise not be possible if these data are not being made publicly available [ 44 ].…”