Data Sharing: An Ethical and Scientific Imperative

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 315; no. 12; pp. 1238 - 1240
• Main Authors: Bauchner, Howard, Golub, Robert M, Fontanarosa, Phil B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 22.03.2016
• Subjects: Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic - ethics; Clinical Trials as Topic - standards; Data Anonymization - ethics; Data Anonymization - standards; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Humans; Information Dissemination - ethics; Information sharing; Medical ethics; Publication Bias; Research Subjects; Social Responsibility
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.2420

Sharing data produced from clinical trials has 2 principal purposes: verification of the original analysis and hypothesis generation. It has the potential to advance scientific discovery, improve clinical care, and increase knowledge gained from data collected in these trials. As such, data sharing has become an ethical and scientific imperative. The data sharing process has generated controversy,1- 5 for example, about which data should be shared, with whom, and how quickly. However, there is limited information to help guide the discussion. Here, Bauchner et al comment on the study by Navar et al that details the experience of data sharing that has occurred in 3 clinical trial databases to which 14 pharmaceutical companies have contributed individual patient data from 3255 trials.