Funder Data-Sharing Policies: Overview and Recommendations

This report covers funder data-sharing policies/practices, and provides recommendations to funders and others as they consider their own policies. It was commissioned by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017.

Executive Summary

Introduction

Research transparency – sharing data and other materials for further research and re-analysis – is on the rise. Many people and institutions in the research ecosystem have pointed to potential benefits of transparency, from accelerating scientific progress to increasing reliability of research. Over the past two decades, dozens of funders and hundreds of journals have adopted data-sharing policies, data repositories have sprung up to meet the growing demand, and norms among researchers have also started to change.

In spite of the increasing support for transparency, many questions remain. On the funder side, these questions often pertain to data-sharing polices: what data should funders ask grantees to share? Where and when should they share? And what support will funders provide for datasharing? This report, commissioned by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reviews current funder policies and practices and provides recommendations.

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