COVID-19 and the research scholarship ecosystem: help!

Area of Science:

• Biomedical research
• Open science
• Data sharing

Background:

• Data sharing practices in biomedicine are often unclear.
• The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant issues with the lack of data sharing.
• Open access and data sharing are critical for scientific progress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the persistent challenges in biomedical data sharing.
• To examine current data sharing practices in biomedical journals and among funders.
• To analyze the consequences of these practices, particularly in the context of COVID-19 research.

Main Methods:

• Review of current open access policies at biomedical journals.
• Examination of data sharing mandates from funding agencies.
• Analysis of the impact of these policies on COVID-19 research.

Main Results:

• Despite intentions, biomedical research, including COVID-19 studies, is not fully open.
• Academic institutions must incentivize and reward data sharing in researcher evaluations.
• Journals and funders need robust policies to enforce data sharing.

Conclusions:

• Biomedical journals, funders, and academic institutions must enforce stricter adherence to data sharing policies.
• Stronger policies are needed to make data sharing a reality in biomedical research.
• Patient support for data sharing underscores the need for improved practices.