Data Matters presents a series of interviews with scientists, funders and librarians on topics related to data sharing and standards.

As we move toward greater openness in science, the team at Scientific Data believe we need to fully grasp the benefits of and barriers to sharing data across the academic spectrum. To help us better our understanding of why the practice of sharing data is so varied across different disciplines, institutions, and geographies we interviewed numerous people who support the principle – from palaeontologists to neuroscientists and ecologists (to name just a few) but also those working with funding bodies and libraries.

The results may surprise you. Even in fields which have promoted open data for some time, there is still work to be done in terms of raising quality and standards. Over the summer, we plan to publish all the interviews we conducted on this blog. The interviews address several themes, including:

• Preservation of data
• Credit and quality of data
• Discoverability
• Openness of data

For now, we’ll give you a sneak peek of what’s to come, including interviews with Simon Hay (Professor Epidemiology, University of Oxford), Patricia Soranno (Professor in the Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University), Timothy Rowe (Professor of Paleontology at the University of Texas) and Susanna-Assunta Sansone (Associate Director of Oxford e-Research Centre and Honorary Academic Editor of Scientific Data)

Share, comment, and stay tuned to this blog for the latest on Scientific Data.

Timothy Rowe
Professor of Paleontology at the University of Texas, USA

“No-one is born into this world understanding how computer tomography data ought to be interpreted,” says Professor Rowe. He asks how we can establish best practice for scientists looking to store data, and what incentive we can offer young researchers looking to share data. Should data sharing be one of the social underpinnings of modern science?

Data Matters: an interview with Timothy Rowe

Susanna-Assunta Sansone
Associate Director of Oxford e-Research Centre, UK, and Honorary Academic Editor of Scientific Data

The Honorary Academic Editor for Scientific Data has spent years helping others to structure, share and explore their data in the life, natural and biomedical sciences. Dr Sansone debates the importance of format when publishing data online, and how we can make data more easily reusable.

Data Matters: an interview with Susanna-Assunta Sansone

Patricia Soranno
Professor in the Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, USA

Professor Soranno discusses the issues ecologists face when gathering data, including how to make the data easily discoverable and reusable – particularly when a large amount of data is collected by government agencies, and when online repositories are rarely used. She asks, how do we achieve a cultural shift which enables academics to share their data online?

Data Matters: an interview with Patricia Soranno

Simon Hay
Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, UK

Professor Hay works on the Malaria Atlas Project, which disseminates free, accurate and up-to-date information on malaria, organised on a geographical basis. The whole ethos of the project is open access, but it utilises open data, and open code too. He shares his thoughts on why researchers benefit from making their data open, and why researchers need to take more responsibility for open science, while also explaining his theory of ‘dirty laundry syndrome.’

Data Matters: an interview with Simon Hay | See the Data Descriptor by Simon Hay and coauthors