ANSTO congratulates Professor Schmidt on Nobel Prize

ANSTO scientists are making their data public in the interests of open science.

Researchers at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) have demonstrated their enthusiasm for the open science concept after making more than 100 data sets public as part of an innovative national program to share information. The data is a valuable repository of information about the environment, health and materials science that others can now use as the basis for their studies.

The information that has been made available to the Australian National Data Service includes a diverse collection of datasets created by scientists performing studies into areas such as materials science, climate, and medical research.

Metadata Manager, Rachel Caldwell and Manager of the project within ANSTO, Jaylan Cowie explained that sharing data had multiple benefits.

“For the public, it means having access to data and being confident about transparency and openness,” Rachel Caldwell said.

“For researchers, it provides a central repository of their information that they can refer to, and it also means they can gain potential global recognition from others who may refer to the data in their studies. The 100 datasets milestone had been achieved in quick time after the program was introduced over the last year, demonstrating the ready acceptance of the concept at ANSTO"

Dr Matthew Fischer, a Computational Modeller from the Institute for Environmental Research said that publishing data encourages scientists to organise data into common formats, making the transfer of information easier.

“Where possible, publishing data is good research practice and housing data in a central repository is likely to increase further collaborations and citations,” he said.

This project is supported by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS). ANDS is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Program and the Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative.

The ANSTO open portal can be found at http://openscience.ansto.gov.au

Posted Friday 2 September, 2011.