News of the Week

SCIENCE PUBLISHING:
The UPSIDE of Good Behavior: Make Your Data Freely Available

Eliot Marshall

A report issued last week by the National Academy of Sciences decrees that the authors of published papers must support their claims by quickly and freely releasing data such as DNA sequences. Their goal, the authors say, is to get "universal adherence, without exception," to the idea that any scientist should have ready access to the data and materials needed to "verify or replicate" a published claim.