Some experiments and studies are not suitable for sharing. Small, experimental studies, for example, are easy enough to replicate without data sharing. And some other kinds, such as child development studies that videotape participants, may be too difficult to release without risking violations of participants' privacy. But many funding agencies have begun financing large, expensive longitudinal studies on issues such as the long-term effects of day care, which use up a large chunk of scarce resources. And it's on these unique data sets that funding agencies have already begun to enforce data sharing policies.
Some researchers hail the trend as good for science.
It would make for better science and allow us to think of our work as being more cumulative and built upon. Although others agree with the basic tenet of data sharing, they worry that forced archiving and sharing will result in data being used inappropriately. Certainly, data sharing policies should proceed with caution and ensure that researchers have a reasonable period of exclusive use of their data, say funding agency administrators. But the question should not be whether data will be shared, but how and when. But people don't always act the way we'd like and there are some very distinguished researchers who have been very bad about sharing.