Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] Public access policy plays a crucial role in raising the awareness of openness, promoting scientific progress and innovation development. Studying the current situation of scientific data sharing in international countries can provide a reference for the practice and development of scientific data sharing activities in China. [Method/Process] Over the past 15 years, an increasing number of funding agencies in the United States have responded to national policy calls to require funded projects to share the research results in order to improve the effectiveness of the grant implementation and to promote scientific development. To this end, many academic institutions have established and provided a variety of data support facilities and services, but these facilities and services are often scattered across different administrative departments. Data management and sharing activities under this model suffer from organizational deficiencies, fragmented activities, overlapping services, inaccessibility, and others that reduce the efficiency of public access to scientific data. In order to understand the reality of scientific data sharing, ARL conducted a fact-based study named the RADS initiative on the scientific data sharing model, with survey respondents coming from six research-intensive universities in the United States, who are involved in scientific data management and sharing, resulting in a relatively comprehensive survey. The article adopts the network research method and literature analysis method, through the interpretation of the first phase of ARL's RADS Initiative series of reports and materials, to comprehensively understand the composition of the entire life cycle of scientific data management and sharing activities, service content and implementation costs of the U.S. academic institutions under the public access policy. We also analyze the behavioral characteristics of the two main actors of the U.S. colleges and universities involved in the practice of scientific data sharing, the characteristics of the activities and support services, and summarize the real problems of scientific data management. The practical problems of scientific data sharing include inter-departmental coordination and linkage, gaps in supply and demand between disciplines, boundaries between disciplines, inadequate cost-benefit evaluation, and the availability of shared data to the public. [Results/Conclusions] On the basis of summarizing the successful experiences and shortcomings of the RADS Initiative, and taking into account the current situation of scientific data sharing in China, this paper puts forward the construction ideas and quality enhancement suggestions to promote the implementation of scientific data sharing activities in China at each level with an emphasis on public participation, We propose to integrate the coordinated development and optimize cost-effectiveness, foster the data literacy and emphasize user feedback, focus on the public access, and construct the core clusters.

Key words: public access, scientific data, data sharing, data management, open science