Reward system for research data required that incorporates data metrics
The report "The Value of Research Data - Metrics for datasets from a cultural and technical point of view" recommends that data sharing and data publication should be more broadly adopted among scholars. To support this a reward system should be developed for scientists that includes data metrics. Other important steps to be taken are that the costs of data publication should be reduced and the existing negative perceptions of researchers regarding data publication should be addressed. Standards will need to be developed for preservation, publication, identification and citation of datasets. The report was commissioned by Knowledge Exchange and written by Rodrigo Costas, Ingeborg Meijer and Paul Wouters from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at the Unversity of Leiden.
Máire Geoghegan Quinn, the European Commissioner of Research, Innovation and Science commented on this report: "The European Commission is committed to increase the impact of publicly-funded research through open access. We have already said this will be the default for publications arising from future EU funded research in Horizon 2020, and we are considering also a pilot project to explore ways to make research data open access too. We welcome all contributions to this debate and this report is very timely as we develop our ideas."
The report can be found here: http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/datametrics