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On Open Data Day on 7^th March, the Early Career Researcher Advisory Board (ECRAB) for Wellcome Open Research, a partner platform with F1000, joined the celebrations with the launch of our data sharing campaign. We want to grow a culture of data sharing by raising awareness, sharing information and developing discipline specific resources on data sharing to help all researchers shift to open science practices.

In this blog, we outline our plans and give a taste of things to come over the next year. Don’t miss out on the content by tracking #ECROpenData to stay up to date and all content will be available here.

Easier said than done…

Open data – are you enthusiastic or apprehensive about openly sharing your data? Even for those who are willing to share their data, the journey can sometimes be arduous, with unexpected challenges and hurdles to overcome, so it’s not surprising that even the most tenacious might be put off.

We know it can sometimes be a struggle, and many are facing the same difficulties, which is why we’re here to lend a helping hand. We’ll be easing you into the process, educating and guiding you with useful advice and case studies, so that you can familiarise yourself with the requirements but also enrich your research by making it open and accessible for other to reuse. Believe us, your efforts are worth it in the long run.

Growing a culture of data sharing

Here is what you can expect to see over the coming months:

• The dos and don’ts, providing helpful hints and tips
• Debunking the myths surrounding open data
• Advice on making data openly available
• Case studies with researchers covering the requirements across different disciplines
• Online discussions covering common problems researchers may face
• Showcasing datasets made available in WOR publications

Tell us your story

Do you have a data story? Then share it with us via email info@wellcomeopenresearch.org or on Twitter, by using the Hashtag #ECROpenData and tag @WellcomeOpenRes. We want to hear your experience and by sharing it with the community means that we can all learn and move forward. We need to work together for progress to be made and we hope this community driven campaign can create a lasting impact and to change the future of research for the better.

Don’t miss out on the content by following our campaign with #ECROpenData. All content will also be available here.

“When the first researcher asked at a conference ‘Can you share some of your new datasets?, little did I know about the journey ahead – unexpected barriers, scrutiny, crowdsourcing of ideas, surprises and amazing opportunities!” – a little teaser of the upcoming blog by Jana Hutter, a member of the ECRab, and an open data convert, who despite all the barriers she had to overcome, now sees open data as the best way forward for research.