BioMed Central’s position statement on open data

Increasing transparency in scientific research has always been at the core of BioMed Central’s strategy. Now, after more than a decade of open access research publishing, BioMed Central is extending its efforts in encouraging and facilitating transparency in scholarly communication beyond articles and onto data.

The data underlying published articles are an increasingly integral part of the scientific record. A principle benefit of sharing scientific data is that it facilitates the discovery of new knowledge, as the outputs of previous scientific research can be readily re-used, evaluated and incorporated into new research [1]. Sharing raw data reduces the potential for bias, improving the scientific evidence base and, with agreement on standard, machine-readable formats, we can help maximize the potential of the semantic web and facilitate automated knowledge discovery and drive further scientific innovation. We believe the future of scholarly communication depends on a commitment to data.

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