Researchers in almost all disciplines now create data in digital form. These data can come in many guises: for example, the measurements recorded by environmental monitoring satellites, the products of collisions between fundamental particles, the sequences of entire genomes, the results of social science surveys and interviews, the annotated images of ancient Greek inscriptions or the annotated videos of innovative dance routines.
Like the books in a well-run library, some of these data are curated and kept for future access and re-use in well-managed data centres that are usually subject-based. These lucky data, which typically are generated by large-scale facilities or major goal-oriented research programmes, can be re-analysed or interpreted by tomorrow’s researchers who may use them to answer questions we cannot predict today. The majority of research data, however, goes uncatalogued and is therefore not reusable. In all probability, this is not only a loss to posterity, but also a failure to reap the full potential from present day investment in research.
As the volume of research data increases relentlessly, the need to find ways to manage and curate data for sharing and re-use also grows. Many organisations have a stake in finding solutions, which will vary almost as much as the data themselves. Policies are needed at international, national and institutional levels that are rooted in the actions researchers themselves will need to take.
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