<https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/ethics-of-withholding-science-data-from-the-public.376782/>
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"I am a graduate student who works with a large science collaboration.  The collaboration has built a very useful set of data which will, we are told, be released to the public at some future time when the collaborators are sure it is sufficiently free of errors.  However, it is more or less an open secret that the data is really being withheld from the public so that the collaborators can publish their analysis of the data before anyone else has a chance.  \r\n\r\nI strongly believe this policy is unethical, and detrimental to science as a whole.  The more scientists who have access to data, the sooner it can be used to draw conclusions about nature, and perhaps guide the next generation of research projects in the most fruitful direction.  Restricting data to the smallest possible audience may benefit a few in the short term, but ultimately retards the progress of science as a whole.\r\n\r\nThe practice of withholding science data is also unethical from a financial point of view.  Unlike the private sector, where companies can justify keeping their research secret for business reasons (and because they pay for it), most basic science research is funded by the public and is meant to benefit all humankind, not the careers of specific researchers.\r\n\r\nDo you readers agree that the current practice of withholding science data is unethical, and what is being done to change this practice?"
<https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/ethics-of-withholding-science-data-from-the-public.376782/>