The Realized and Unrealized Fears of Providing Data Online

You would think by now that we would all be freely sharing data in a standardized way and making them available to all.  Technology has made it “easy” and “fast” to do.  There are data portals, data warehouses, on-line data systems, nodes, and whatever the new term is for making data available online.  Then why are we still wondering where the data are?  Many reasons (fears) are provided when you ask a biologist why they have not made data available, some of which include:

• Someone might use the data against me.
• Someone might misinterpret or misuse my data.
• The data were collected for one purpose and should not be used for another purpose.
• Someone might take credit for data that I collected or publish them before I can.
• Someone might “rebrand” my data and receive financial compensation for them
• Someone might criticize my data, methods, time frame, etc.
• I will not be recognized for all of the hard work I did in collecting the data.
• My data were collected for a certain purpose and nobody else would want them.
• Sharing protocols insist on a standard format, but we do it differently!
• My data are raw data in a spreadsheet; it is too time consuming to provide data in the format needed.
• I want to maintain control over my data

Are these fears real or are we just paranoid?  We will try to figure out if they really are out to get us in 15 minutes or less.