NIH Release Draft Policy for Data Management and Sharing, and Supplemental Draft Guidance

The National Institute of Health (NIH) recently released a new draft and supplemental guidance for its policy for data management and sharing plan. NIH believes that validation and progress in biomedical research relies on access to scientific data in order to develop new prevention strategies, treatments, and cures. The new draft policy is aimed at reinforcing NIH’s longstanding commitment to making the results and outputs of research that it funds available to the public.

NIH believes that “sharing scientific data helps validate research results, enables researchers to combine data types to strengthen analyses, facilitates reuse of hard to generate data or data from limited sources, and accelerates ideas for future research inquiries. Central to sharing scientific data is the recognized need to make data as available as possible while ensuring that the privacy and autonomy of research participants are respected, and that confidential/proprietary data are appropriately protected.”

The updated policy would require individuals and entities to provide a Data Management and Sharing Plan (Plan) describing how scientific data will be managed, including when and where the scientific data will be preserved and shared, prior to initiating the research study.” It goes on to state that “shared data should be made accessible in a timely manner for use by the research community and the broader public.”

For more information on the draft policy visit: https://osp.od.nih.gov/scientific-sharing/nih-data-management-and-sharing-activities-related-to-public-access-and-open-science/.