Request for Community partnership in data resource licensing planning

We write an open letter to the NIH Data Research Council to initiate a dialog regarding NIH decisions on data use agreements and licenses. We are members of NIH-funded research groups that collect and/or integrate biomedical data from diverse sources for the purpose of advancing diagnosis, prognosis, treatment selection, and mechanistic discovery.

We welcome additional signatories here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fbwKxnPu5f1YXlMM6UMyfBqHx_Inz86tKzwRFO4W8jQ

Summary:

• The current diversity of data use agreements and licenses significantly hampers the ability to reuse and redistribute data in various informatics contexts.

• We believe that any mandatory data licensing policy must also include a plan for ensuring access, sustainability, and data quality.

• We request community partnership with NIH to develop common licensing and data reuse plans.