[open-science] Data sharing policy for citizen science projects?

[Puneet Kishor]

On Jun 12, 2012, at 2:25 AM, Paweł Szczęsny <ps at pawelszczesny.org> wrote:

> So
> in essence, I'm looking for a tool that would encourage data release
> before the publication in fields that don't have already such a
> community agreement as genomics.


I am not sure if there is any such magic tool. Also, as in genomics, you might do better to try and create a mindset, a buy-in, an agreement, that is, redefine the "norm" if there is one, or to create a new norm if there isn't any in your field. It is, as you rightly indicated, a cultural problem. 

The tool(s) already exist -- you could convince the contributors to put their contributions in the PD, go CC0, use CC BY, heck, even store and transmit each contributor's preferred license with every query (yes, crazy messy to do, but that is what we are doing in one project I am involved with as that is the only way we can hope to bring together contributors spread around the globe). Oh, and we also have a "release by" date stamped on every contribution. Once again, all contributors agree to a max release by date, although they can choose to have a release by date that can be sooner than the default value.

It is a cultural problem, and a new or changed culture is required, not necessarily a tool.


--
Puneet Kishor