I'm always glad to see submissions to Hacker News from the new Stat news service. This submission has a lead paragraph before the interview transcript that sets

I'm always glad to see submissions to Hacker News from the new Stat news service. This submission has a lead paragraph before the interview transcript that sets a lot of context: "In an extraordinary move, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors last week issued a proposal to require researchers to share their clinical trial data as a condition for publication. And the researchers would also have to submit plans for how their data can be shared. The journal editors, who represent such periodicals as The New England Journal of Medicine and the Annals of Internal Medicine, believe data sharing 'will help to fulfill our moral obligation to study participants, and we believe it will benefit patients, investigators, sponsors, and society.'" The key words there are "condition for publication." If researchers can no longer publish in the major journals without an ironclad guarantee that they will share their data, the incentive to share data well improves a lot. Interestingly, the Retraction Watch group-edited blog about scientific research has a guest post today "Sharing data is a good thing. But we need to consider the costs"[1] by Liz Wager referring to the same proposal by medical journals, but suggesting that some other rules would be even more helpful for improving research. "I want to re-emphasize that I am not against data sharing. If I had a magic wand (aka unlimited funding for research and its dissemination) I would undoubtedly wave it over all research and create a system in which raw data were permanently linked to all types of report and all the report formats were linked (so that, for example, somebody reading a press release could easily check the journal article, and, if they wished, also the protocol, full study findings and raw data). But if the fairy gave me two wishes instead of a wand, I would wish for prospective trial registration and access to full trial reports for all trials before wishing for raw data." [1] http://retractionwatch.com/2016/01/28/sharing-data-is-a-good-thing-but-we-need-to-consider-the-costs/#more-36359 http://retractionwatch.com/2016/01/28/sharing-data-is-a-good...