Gideon Emcee Christian has self-archived "Building a Sustainable Framework for Open Access to Research Data through Information and Communication Technologies" in SSRN.
Here's an excerpt:
The growth in information and communication technology (ICT) has brought about increased pace in information and knowledge exchange. This increased pace is being fueled in large part by the open exchange of information. The pressure for open access to research data is gaining momentum in virtually every field of human endeavour. Data is the life blood of science and quite unsurprisingly data repositories are rapidly becoming an essential component of the infrastructure of the global science system. Improved access to data will transform the way research is conducted. It will create new opportunities and avenues for improved efficiency in dealing with social, economic and scientific challenges facing humanity.
Despite the admitted benefits of open access to research data, the concept is still weighed down by series of factors both legal and ethical which must be resolved in other to derive the maximum benefits arising from open access to data. The resolution of these issues will require the development of a sustainable framework to facilitate access to and use of research data by researchers, academics institutions, private individuals and other users. This research paper examines the legal and ethical issues affecting open access to research data. The research also examined various frameworks for enhancing open access to research data. Such frameworks include the open data contract, open content licenses as well as open data commons.
