Sharing Research Data to Improve Public Health in Africa : A Workshop Summary

Sharing research data on public health issues can promote expanded scientific inquiry and has the potential to advance improvements in public health. Although sharing data is the norm in some research fields, sharing of data in public health is not as firmly established. In March 2015, the National Research Council organized an international conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa, to explore the benefits of and barriers to sharing research data within the African context. The workshop brought together public health researchers and epidemiologists primarily from the African continent, along with selected international experts, to talk about the benefits and challenges of sharing data to improve public health, and to discuss potential actions to guide future work related to public health research data sharing. Sharing Research Data to Improve Public Health in Africa summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop. Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Introduction2 Context3 Establishing Equitable Terms for Data Sharing4 Exploring the Ethical Imperative for Data Sharing5 Enabling Data Discoverability, Linkage, and Re-use6 Next Steps: Maximizing the Use of Data to Improve Public HealthAppendix A Workshop AgendaAppendix B Participants