Proposal for a Data Publication and Citation Framework When Sharing Biomedical Research Resources

Research data and biospecimen repositories are valuable resources for biomedical investigators. Sharing these resources has great potential benefits including efficient use of resources, avoiding duplicate experiments, gathering adequate sample sizes, and promoting collaboration. However, concerns from data producers about difficulties of getting proper acknowledgement for their data contributions are increasingly becoming obstacles for efficient and large-scale data sharing in reality. In this research project we analyzed the inadequacy of current policy-based solution for promoting data sharing. The recommendations in this paper emphasize data publication and citation. This project aims to promote the acknowledgement of data contributors with realizable informatics tools that augment informal policy-level strategies, and do so in a way that promotes data sharing.