Growing availability of shared neuroscience data is driving unprecedented research and innovation. This shift toward open sharing of neuroscience data means data are often crossing the legal and national borders from where they originate. Modern international collaborations and research bring data governance to the fore with the imminent need for coordination across institutions, countries, and cultures. Without a planned International Data Governance Framework (IDGF), academia, industry and policy domains struggle with addressing these needs.
Generalized solutions for IDGF for research have not yet been proposed, and limit the ability of researchers to tackle global challenges in neuroscience. These challenges are not only technical in nature but also economic, ethical, and legal. Due to the sensitive nature of neuroscience data, which are inextricably linked to identity and personhood, IDG should prioritize the diversity of ethics, culture, and privacy while ensuring compatibility with the open-sharing needs of the neuroscience community.
We propose an IDGF that balances data protection and open science, such that personal information is safeguarded while maximizing the potential for sharing and reuse of data. With the trend towards increased data sharing, additional technical limitations, such as data storage infrastructure, findability of data, as well as accessibility should be considered. Our proposed IDG will help clarify the technical, legal, and ethical responsibilities that the scientific community has to balance their obligations to scientific discovery while maintaining a commitment to human privacy.