Michel Gelobter (1992) Public Data-archiving: a Fair Return on Publicly Funded Research
. Psycoloquy: 3(56) Data Archive (3)
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Psycoloquy 3(56): Public Data-archiving: a Fair Return on Publicly Funded Research
PUBLIC DATA-ARCHIVING: A FAIR RETURN ON PUBLICLY FUNDED RESEARCH
Commentary on Skoyles on Data-Archiving
Michel Gelobter
School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University
New York, NY 10021
mg78@cunixf.columbia.edu
or
gelobter@garnet.berkeley.edu
Abstract
Skoyles's (1992) idea is excellent. Some form of the
process Skoyles recommends should be adopted throughout the
research world, but he fails to take on the thorny issue of data
ownership directly. The Federal Government could adopt guidelines
for the status of data aquired through government subsidy. They
would specify the format and availability of all data gathered at
taxpayer expense. This proposal would revolutionize the research
"business" by putting cutting edge results in the public domain. I
believe that the research our taxes pay for should not be
channelled to private entrepreneurs. The profit from developing and
using publicly funded research can still be guaranteed through
licensing, but the monopoly "rent" derived from the control of data
and results must be returned to the public domain.
Keywords
data archiving, deception, electronic retrieval, error
detection, ftp, fraud, meta-analysis, statistics, public domain,
public property, federal funding.
References
- Skoyles, John R. (1992) Public Electronic Archiving and Retrieval of Raw Scientific Data. PSYCOLOQUY 3(29) data-archive.1