Determinants of Unlawful File Sharing: A Scoping Review

We employ a scoping review methodology to consider and assess the existing evidence on the determinants of unlawful file sharing (UFS) transparently and systematically. Based on the evidence, we build a simple conceptual framework to model the psychological decision to engage in UFS, purchase legally or do nothing. We identify social, moral, experiential, technical, legal and financial utility sources of the decision to purchase or to file share. They interact in complex ways. We consider the strength of evidence within these areas and note patterns of results. There is good evidence for influences on UFS within each of the identified determinants, particularly for self-reported measures, with more behavioral research needed. There are also indications that the reasons for UFS differ across media; more studies exploring media other than music are required.     

Biomedical Data Sharing and Reuse: Attitudes and Practices of Clinical and Scientific Research Staff

Background

Significant efforts are underway within the biomedical research community to encourage sharing and reuse of research data in order to enhance research reproducibility and enable scientific discovery. While some technological challenges do exist, many of the barriers to sharing and reuse are social in nature, arising from researchers’ concerns about and attitudes toward sharing their data. In addition, clinical and basic science researchers face their own unique sets of challenges to sharing data within their communities. This study investigates these differences in experiences with and perceptions about sharing data, as well as barriers to sharing among clinical and basic science researchers.

Methods

Clinical and basic science researchers in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health were surveyed about their attitudes toward and experiences with sharing and reusing research data. Of 190 respondents to the survey, the 135 respondents who identified themselves as clinical or basic science researchers were included in this analysis. Odds ratio and Fisher’s exact tests were the primary methods to examine potential relationships between variables. Worst-case scenario sensitivity tests were conducted when necessary.

Results and Discussion

While most respondents considered data sharing and reuse important to their work, they generally rated their expertise as low. Sharing data directly with other researchers was common, but most respondents did not have experience with uploading data to a repository. A number of significant differences exist between the attitudes and practices of clinical and basic science researchers, including their motivations for sharing, their reasons for not sharing, and the amount of work required to prepare their data.

Conclusions

Even within the scope of biomedical research, addressing the unique concerns of diverse research communities is important to encouraging researchers to share and reuse data. Efforts at promoting data sharing and reuse should be aimed at solving not only technological problems, but also addressing researchers’ concerns about sharing their data. Given the varied practices of individual researchers and research communities, standardizing data practices like data citation and repository upload could make sharing and reuse easier.     

Sharing Research Data and Intellectual Property Law: A Primer

Sharing research data by depositing it in connection with a published article or otherwise making data publicly available sometimes raises intellectual property questions in the minds of depositing researchers, their employers, their funders, and other researchers who seek to reuse research data. In this context or in the drafting of data management plans, common questions are (1) what are the legal rights in data; (2) who has these rights; and (3) how does one with these rights use them to share data in a way that permits or encourages productive downstream uses? Leaving to the side privacy and national security laws that regulate sharing certain types of data, this Perspective explains how to work through the general intellectual property and contractual issues for all research data.For the researcher seeking to use another’s data, this Perspective offers some good news and some not as good news. The good news is that if a source of data—the researcher or repository—gives permission to reuse the data and one’s intended use fits within the scope of the permission, one need not be overly concerned with the details of the discussion that follows because the permission provides the legal basis for data reuse. For example, if one seeks data from the European Bioinformatics Institute, one will find that the terms of use state that “[t]he public databases of EMBL-EBI [The European Molecular Biology Laboratory-The European Bioinformatics Institute] are freely available by any individual and for any purpose” [1]. This would appear to give any individual academic researcher permission to copy and reuse the data at will. It leaves open a question about whether an employee acting on behalf of his or her employer (is s/he acting as “an individual”?) is equally granted this permission.There is, however, a catch. The EBI’s terms also warn the user that some third parties may claim intellectual property or other legal rights on the original data, and it is up to the researcher not to infringe these rights. This kind of legal uncertainty interferes with the productive reuse of research data. It can be avoided if the repository requires depositors to grant permission to downstream users or to give up any intellectual property rights they may have in the data. Alternatively, the final section of this Perspective describes means by which repositories can make it easy for depositors to signal the scope of the permission they grant to downstream users.In the absence of clear permission, mapping how intellectual property law does—and does not—apply to research data may be of use. In my view, the law makes all of this far more complicated than it need be. For those seeking to pick and choose which reuses of another’s data may be permitted by law, regrettably, the answers to the above questions are more context dependent than many would like.This is so for two reasons. First, the source of all intellectual property rights is national law. Certain international treaties harmonize intellectual property owners’ rights but leave the users’ rights to vary by country. Second, certain countries have added protection beyond what the treaties require. Specifically, the members of the European Union, candidate countries in Eastern Europe, Mexico [2], and South Korea have created a specialized database right that applies to certain databases created or maintained within their borders. These laws regulate uses of these databases only within their borders.     

WBSA: Web Service for Bisulfite Sequencing Data Analysis

Whole-Genome Bisulfite Sequencing (WGBS) and genome-wide Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS) are widely used to study DNA methylation. However, data analysis is complicated, lengthy, and hampered by a lack of seamless analytical pipelines. To address these issues, we developed a convenient, stable, and efficient web service called Web Service for Bisulfite Sequencing Data Analysis (WBSA) to analyze bisulfate sequencing data. WBSA focuses on not only CpG methylation, which is the most common biochemical modification in eukaryotic DNA, but also non-CG methylation, which have been observed in plants, iPS cells, oocytes, neurons and stem cells of human. WBSA comprises three main modules as follows: WGBS data analysis, RRBS data analysis, and differentially methylated region (DMR) identification. The WGBS and RRBS modules execute read mapping, methylation site identification, annotation, and advanced analysis, whereas the DMR module identifies actual DMRs and annotates their correlations to genes. WBSA can be accessed and used without charge either online or local version. WBSA also includes the executables of the Portable Batch System (PBS) and standalone versions that can be downloaded from the website together with the installation instructions. WBSA is available at no charge for academic users at http://wbsa.big.ac.cn.     

The Elements of Data Sharing

正Data and their tailored characteristics are inheritable and longlived, surpassing their analyzed results and conclusions regardless if they are produced by their generators or users. Aside from designing experiments for the new acquisition, scientific researchers always begin with a thorough synthesis of the existing data, especially those that have been demonstrated authentic and timely. This fact has to be particularly emphasized     

Data Do Not Speak for Themselves: The Role of Data in Scientific Controversies

This article presents a learning cycle with the aim of helping students understand the evidentiary basis of scientific claims. Students consider data and interpretations as used to support contradictory views in the debate surrounding the causal relationship between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Students apply their understandings of the role of data to explorations of other scientific controversies.     

CitSci.org: A New Model for Managing,Documenting, and Sharing Citizen Science Data

Citizen science projects have the potential to advance science by increasing the volume and variety of data, as well as innovation. Yet this potential has not been fully realized, in part because citizen science data are typically not widely shared and reused. To address this and related challenges, we built CitSci.org (see www.citsci.org), a customizable platform that allows users to collect and generate diverse datasets. We hope that CitSci.org will ultimately increase discoverability and confidence in citizen science observations, encouraging scientists to use such data in their own scientific research.     

File and Object Replication in Data Grids

Data replication is a key issue in a Data Grid and can be managed in different ways and at different levels of granularity: for example, at the file level or object level. In the High Energy Physics community, Data Grids are being developed to support the distributed analysis of experimental data. We have produced a prototype data replication tool, the Grid Data Mirroring Package (GDMP) that is in production use in one physics experiment, with middleware provided by the Globus Toolkit used for authentication, data movement, and other purposes. We present here a new, enhanced GDMP architecture and prototype implementation that uses Globus Data Grid tools for efficient file replication. We also explain how this architecture can address object replication issues in an object-oriented database management system. File transfer over wide-area networks requires specific performance tuning in order to gain optimal data transfer rates. We present performance results obtained with GridFTP, an enhanced version of FTP, and discuss tuning parameters.     

Data Sharing in Medical Research: An Empirical Investigation

Background:
Scientific research entails systematic investigation. Publishing the findings of research in peer reviewed journals implies a high level of confidence by the authors in the veracity of their interpretation. Therefore it stands to reason that researchers should be prepared to share their raw data with other researchers, so that others may enjoy the same level of confidence in the findings.
Method:
In a prospective study, 29 corresponding authors of original research articles in a medical journal (the British Medical Journal ) were contacted to ascertain their preparedness to share the data from their research. The email contact was in one of two forms, a general request and a specific request. The type of request a researcher received was randomly allocated.
Findings:
Researchers receiving specific requests for data were less likely, and slower, to respond than researchers receiving general requests. Only one researcher released data. Most researchers were reluctant to release their data. Some required further information, clarification, or authorship.
Interpretation:
The general reluctance of researchers to consider requests for their data is of concern. It raises questions about the level of confidence that should be placed on their interpretations of the data. It also highlights an unfortunate situation where researchers are more concerned with losing an advantage than advancing science.     

SHORT COMMUNICATION: Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB): A Resource for Sharing and Analyzing Published and Unpublished Data

An olfactory receptor database (ORDB) is being developed tofacilitate analysis of this large gene family. ORDB currentlycontains over 400 olfactory receptor sequences and related information,and is available via the World Wide Web. We plan to incorporatefunctional data, structural models, spatial localization andother categories of information, toward an integrated modelof olfactory receptor function. Chem. Senses 22: 321–326,1997.