“Scientists should communicate the data they collect and the models they create, to allow free and open access, and in ways that are intelligible, assessable and usable for other specialists . . . Where data justify it, scientists should make them available in an appropriate data repository.” So said the Royal Society last week, in its report Science as an Open Enterprise: Open Data for Open Science.1 The report calls for more openness among scientists and with the public and media; greater recognition of the value of data gathering, analysis, and communication; common standards for sharing information to make it widely usable; mandatory publishing of data in a reusable form to support findings; more expertise in managing and supporting the use of digital data; and new software tools to analyse data. It is time for a big shift, says the report, from the status quo where “many scientists still pursue their research through the measured and predictable steps in which they communicate their thinking within relatively closed groups of colleagues; publish their findings, usually in peer reviewed journals; file their data and then move on.”

A few days …