Michael Conlon
Professor Emeritus
University of Florida
Scientists are under increasing pressure to share data produced with public funds. But scientists also have an inherent interest in reusing data shared by others, to the extent that the data can be reused. Archivists play a key role in helping enable data sharing and data reuse, through policies and practices that support both. A central issue in sharing and reuse of data is the inclusion of machine-readable scientific metadata – provenance and context of the data, sufficient for reuse. The current, common practice of including scientific metadata in publications, protocols, and other documents is inefficient for data reuse. The current, common practice of supporting wide varieties of submission standards for archives at universities, agencies, and elsewhere further complicates the task of the scientist wishing to reuse data. In this session, we will review and discuss the landscape of scientific data sharing and reuse, and the efforts that may be needed to create a preferable environment.