Data Are Lost to Science at 'Astonishing Rate'
Dec. 19, 2013 — New evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 19 confirms long-held fears about the fate of scientific data. Careful evaluation of more than 500 randomly selected studies found that the original data behind those published papers have been lost to science at a rapid rate.
Two years after publication, data are essentially always available to other researchers who might wish to confirm the findings, the researchers found. By 20 years post-publication, 80% of that data obtained through publicly funded research is inaccessible due to mundane issues, primarily old email addresses and obsolete storage devices. The researchers call on journals to require that authors share their data on a public archive before a paper can be published.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131219130729.htm
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Some of us would like to see the PACE Trial data, which cost the UK taxpayer £5 million to collect, to be put into a public archive.