BMJ 2001;323:166 ( 21 July )

Letters

Code of conduct is needed for publishing raw data

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITORHutchon in his article showed the benefits of publishing raw data on line.¹ The method of opening up raw data for research has strong parallels to the "open source" movement of the software industry, where developers freely distribute the source code and allow usage and modification.² The open source community has learnt that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see source, and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits (www.opensource.org).

Publishing raw data may in a similar way enhance the speed and quality of research, as other researchers can reanalyse the data to verify results or to draw new conclusions. Preprint servers, as well as innovative e-journals, offer possibilities to share data and encourage other scholars to participate in the research process.² The Journal of Medical Internet Research (. . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• El Emam, K., Dankar, F. K. (2008). Protecting Privacy Using k-Anonymity. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 15: 627-637 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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• Kirkwood, J. M., Ibrahim, J., Sondak, V. K., Ernstoff, M. S., Flaherty, L., Haluska, F. J., Lens, M.B., Dawes, M. (2002). Use and Abuse of Statistics in Evidence-Based Medicine. JCO 20: 4122-4124 [Full text]  
• Altman, D. G, Cates, C. (2001). Authors should make their data available. BMJ 323: 1069-1069 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Publishing the results of studies included in systematic reviews

Douglas G Altman, et al.
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2001 [Full text]

Re: Publishing the results of studies included in systematic reviews

David J R Hutchon
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2001 [Full text]

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