Biosharing
http://www.biosharing.org/

BioSharing works at the global level to build stable linkages in particular between journals, funders, implementing data sharing policies, and well-constituted standardization efforts in the biosciences domain, to expedite the communication and the production of an integrated standards-based framework for the capture and sharing of high-throughput genomics and functional genomic bioscience data, in particular. This objective is achieved via the creation of web-based catalogues and a communication forum, each of which is further described below. Several data preservation, management and sharing policies have emerged in response to increased funding for high-throughput approaches in major genomics and functional genomics bioscience domain; and nowadays, several funding agencies also require inclusion of data-sharing plans in grant applications, and are beginning to actively monitor adherence. But despite some commonalities, the policies are heterogeneous by nature, given the different types of communities served and the data types they generate. In parallel, an escalating number of community-developed standards (reporting requirements, terminological artifacts and exchange formats) operate to support the harmonization of the reporting process, so that different experiments can be comprehensible and (in principle) reproducible, compared or integrated. The research community, funding agencies, and journals continue to participate in the development of standards and tools to support data sharing, as they must if it is to become practicable and commonplace. There are similar trends in both the regulatory arena (Shabo, 2006; FDA Data Standards) and commercial science (Barnes et al., 2009; Pistoia Alliance) that in particular has invested heavily in procedures and tools that integrate external information with their own data to enhance the decision-making process. The proliferation of these standardization efforts is a positive sign of stakeholders’ engagement, but it also brings with it new sociological and technological challenges – creating interoperability and avoiding unnecessary overlaps and duplication of efforts that hampers their wider uptake and interfere with the creations of data sharing tools. Two basic pillars are missing in this endeavor, let aside the ethical, commercialization, credit and other known now issues arising from the public release of data that other groups have started tackling. “One-stop shop” catalogues help centralizing information on bioscience data policies, standards and links to other related portals, and formal communication channels are need to maintain linkages between stakeholders to enable flow of information and mutual support. Hence the creation of the BioSharing project. This has been added to Biological Informatics Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.