Currently, investigators can publish findings without releasing the data upon which conclusions are based, and only a few of the top journals have tried to require data sharing as a condition of publication. Now, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) claims that there is "an ethical obligation to responsibly share data generated by interventional clinical trials because participants have put themselves at risk." Sharing data, they argue, augments scientific integrity and facilitates scientific progress, allowing others to provide insight and analyses.

The shift to data sharing is not without controversy. Researchers often justify their decisions to keep data close by pointing to how much time, effort, and money is spent in gathering and analyzing (their data). They can publish at their own pace, and exposing their data feels risky -- what if someone finds an error? On the other hand, keeping data inaccessible can protect the work from scrutiny but may impede science.