Act to staunch loss of research data

Never before have scientists had the ability to generate and collect so much data — recent estimates suggest that the global scientific output is doubling roughly every decade (see L. Bornmann and R. Mutz, preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.4578v3 ; 2014, and go.nature.com/nzejwh ). It is alarming, therefore, that the odds of data being lost are estimated to increase by 17% in every year after publication (T. H. Vines et al . Curr. Biol. 24 , 94–97; 2014). And this does not include the 80% or so of research data that are inaccessible or unpublished (B. P. Heidorn Libr. Trends 57 , 280–299; 2008).