Almost 10 years after the publication of the first draft  of the human genome, the subject of the public availability of research data continues to stir debate.

In his editorial published in Genome Medicine’s March issue, Section Editor and CNRS Research Director Charles Auffray discusses the need for improvement in the availability and sharing of research results, in order to make the best of the wealth of knowledge currently available and ensure this translates into better therapeutics and patient care.

While initiatives calling for data deposition, trial registration and open access publications have moved the research community into a more generalised sharing of research material, Professor Auffray highlights the need for further progress on this front, and advocates the use of unexploited experimental and clinical data currently held in public and private institutions.

Readers are invited to join the debate and share their views on the issues raised in this editorial by posting a comment on this blog entry.

Iratxe Puebla

Senior Editor, Genome Medicine