The Importance of Open Data in Toxicological Research and Publishing

Every year thousands of toxicological studies are performed around the World. These studies are most commonly funded by Governmental, Non-Governmental agencies, Universities, Faculties, and in the last 50 years even more so by funds provided by research funding schemes such as the Horizon 2020 and the Framework Programmes in the European Union, or the National Institutes of Health in the United States. As part of these studies, thousands of experiments and field studies are done, collecting millions of tables of data ranging from genotypes and cell-culture reactions to chemical agents, to epidemiological data on populations from different towns and countries. In addition, governmental agencies and private companies measure a vast amount of parameters regarding the environment. Recently, a very specific risk has come to attention of research funders: the results of a specific research project are published in a peer review journal, thus satisfying the basic requirements of the project call, and the raw data which was collected remains buried (or lost) in the hard-disk of participating researchers. To resolve this situation, many institutions have adopted the „Open Data“ policy, which should allow the data collected by these institutions or projects funded by them to be freely available to use and re-use by others. This philosophy was also adopted by many journals which now allow the authors of published articles to store even the raw data in their online repositories. This new trend, which might soon become a rule in the scientific publishing world, considering there are journals specifically designed to store datasets and study protocols, increases the use of already collected data, facilitates data re-use and new discoveries, but also helps authors achieve a higher impact and recognition than by just publishing their work.