Science and government. An international framework to promote access to data.

Recent national and multinational investments (1) in networking and continued gains in information technological capability (2) have given rise to a complex cyberinfrastructure that is rapidly increasing our ability to produce, manage, and use data (3). As research becomes increasingly global (4), data-intensive, and multifaceted (5, 6), it is imperative to address national and international data access and sharing issues systematically in a policy arena that transcends national jurisdictions. Open access to publicly funded data provides greater returns from the public investment in research, generates wealth through downstream commercialization of outputs, and provides decision-makers with facts needed to address complex, often transnational, problems. This article summarizes key findings of an international group that studied these issues on behalf of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (7), which resulted in a ministerial-level declaration (8).