Cameron Neylon

Will be trying to liveblog over the day here. Will see how it works out. - Cameron Neylon

BBSRC - can give steer from funder perspective but wanting to see community views and also educate where necessary. Interested in understanding sociological perspectives so bringing together the biologists and sociologists in this meeting. What are the key issues for BBSRC in data sharing? - Cameron Neylon

ESRC genomics network - research into sociology of data sharing in the biosciences. Issues of scale, organisation, technology. Social sciences trying to catch up with what is happening - Cameron Neylon

Been a request for me not to use names so I won't. Just report themes and comments. - Cameron Neylon

Research Information Network is starting up a project on Web2 tools in science - how are they useful? - Cameron Neylon

Mix of funders, scientists, sociologists and information managers - interesting group they've put together certainly - Cameron Neylon

Need both the willingness to share data and the tools to do so. NCRI working on systems for linking cancer resources together. Also interested in facilitating cultural change. Also talking to pharma about releasing data and trying to encourage that. Which company was it that made the recent announcement on pre-competitive data being made available? - Cameron Neylon

Is it possible to solve social issues with a technical solution? How to ensure acknowledgement for tool developers. Understanding the social issues associated with ontologies - move from OWL to SCOS(?) - do the possible technical solutions degrade quality? - Cameron Neylon

Idea of putting data sharing statements from grants in the public domain so people can check. How does BBSRC monitor compliance with data sharing. Issues of not very good data - should it be made public. Again we come back to the issue of sharing data that is not peer reviewed...and administrative load and predictability of that load, possible issues with IP that may arise in retrospect. The issue of 'hostile mining' of data e,g, animal experiments, stem cells etc. - Cameron Neylon

Answer back which is what I would have said - its important its out there and then you need a way to assess the quality. Peer review does not gauruntee data quality - Cameron Neylon

Science ethics course described given by scientists, lawyers, ethicists, economists etc - our (scientist's) perspective is just a perspective, and may not be a very good one. Other disciplines have very different (and possibly valid) perspectives. Potential ethical issues in pursuing sharing policies. - Cameron Neylon

Hit squad at NERC which aimed to provide every possible assistance to labs to get data into a database. Would go out, install computers, provide tools, support, be friendly (not sure about making coffee) etc etc. Sounds wonderful! - Cameron Neylon

Comment that the obsession with access control is less in companies (anyone in the company is perceived to have a 'right to see') than it is in academia. Some experiences that access control is more important to people than the tools. Scientists want control of where, how, and who can access their data. Prior disclosure is a serious issues for people coming to data sharing. - Cameron Neylon

Dataverse project- a loose database that can provide the data in reusable form close to the published papers. Interest from sociologists and cancer researchers (came out of WGS and gene expression data) - Cameron Neylon

JISC project to look at economic benefits of sharing data. Work has been done on costs but relatively little on economic benefits. - Cameron Neylon

Publications can't cope with presenting the data in their current form. If a data set is a terabyte, what goes in the paper? Current data transmission is insufficient. Funders not getting value for money. - Cameron Neylon

This was an introductory session with everyone introducing themselves - hence the collection of fairly scattering points - Cameron Neylon

BBSRC background - Data sharing policy: Policy has been in place for just over a year. Complements existing best practice guide for curation of data. 10 year period in a useable form is the BBSRC standard. *Biology is changing, large datasets, increasing use of datamining, increasing focus on QA and metadata. *Data sharing picked out early on as key area for Tools and Resources Strategy Panel, BBSRC should have leadership role in promoting appropriate research culture - Cameron Neylon

* BBSRC does not own data outputs (rights reside with institutions) but as a funder has interest in value for money. Is also a grant applicant (to government) *Development of data sharing policy to be inclusive and researcher led. Took three years over two stage consultation process - Cameron Neylon

From consultation exercise: Data sharing is a good thing! Critical (and well established) in some areas. Data sharing needs very different across different domains. IP and data sharing are tensioned. Should be no central silo. Decentralised sharing is preferred. Data should be close to the scientists (not sure what that actually means in practice - given how this flows into issues with Institutional repositories) - Cameron Neylon

Policy aim has two roles: Enforcement and aspirational signpost. Recognises the cost issues. Point out that data sharing is different to archival particularly with respect to costs. - Cameron Neylon

Other funders take different approaches - e.g. NERC has much more centralised approach. Potentially different issues in different domains. * BBSRC focusedd on big data and long time series but reserve the right to be more prescriptive in specific cases - Cameron Neylon

Where resources exist for sharing they should be used. If there is a need, create something, and ask for funding to do it! In some cases local ad hoc arrangements may be appropriate. * Will meet data sharing costs through FEC * Will provide resources to develop underpinning tools etc - Cameron Neylon

Issues of funding models - can ask for support in grant but will this work - serious problenmss in repositories charging for deposition. Wellcome trust model for OA where they deal with it and pay for it offline (independent from grant). Also a significant issues in training competent people to manage the curation process, where are these people? - Cameron Neylon

Proposals require a data sharing policy which is refereed by external reviewers against their knowledge of best practice. Expected to report at end of project.Now going into monitoring phase. Onus is on peer review of best practice. - Cameron Neylon

Overall good community buy in so far but big disparity in quality of responses. Some consternation. More mixed outside of established data sharing communities. Not much in the way of resource requests. Early days yet! * Challenges - can you measure value for money? Will it effect a sustained cultural change (or just grantsmanship?). Can understanding of best practice consistently applied by referees and panels? Are there barriers we don't know about yet? What unintended effects? - Cameron Neylon

Moving to new item as that was getting long http://friendfeed.com/e/386543... - Cameron Neylon