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Open Economics Principles
Statement on Openness of Economic Data and Code
Economic research is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising
the published body of economic knowledge. Furthermore, empirical
economic research and data play a central role for policy-making in many
important areas of our economies and societies.
Openness enables and underpins scholarly enquiry and debate, and is
crucial in ensuring the reproducibility of economic research and analysis.
Thus, for economics to function effectively, and for society to reap the full
benefits from economic research, it is therefore essential that economic
research results, data and analysis be openly and freely available,
wherever possible.
1. Open by default: by default data in its different stages and formats, program code, experimental
instructions and metadata – all of the evidence used by economists to support underlying claims –
should be open as per the Open Definition1, free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute.
Specifically open material should be publicly available and licensed with an appropriate open
license2.
2. Privacy and confidentiality: We recognise that there are often cases where for reasons of
privacy, national security and commercial confidentiality the full data cannot be made openly
available. In such cases researchers should share analysis under the least restrictive terms
consistent with legal requirements, and abiding by the research ethics and guidelines of their
community. This should include opening up non-sensitive data, summary data, metadata and
code; and facilitating access if the owner of the original data grants other researchers permission
to use the data.
3. Reward structures and data citation: recognizing the importance of data and code to the
discipline, reward structures should be established in order to recognise these scholarly
contributions with appropriate credit and citation in an acknowledgement that producing data and
code with the documentation that make them reusable by others requires a significant
commitment of time and resources. At minimum, all data necessary to understand, assess, or
extend conclusions in scholarly work should be cited. Acknowledgements of research funding,
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traditionally limited to publications, could be extended to research data and contribution of data
curators should be recognised.
4. Data availability: Investigators should share their data by the time of publication of initial results
of analyses of the data, except in compelling circumstances. Data relevant to public policy should
be shared as quickly and widely as possible. Funders, journals and their editorial boards should
put in place and enforce data availability policies requiring data, code and any other relevant
information to be made openly available as soon as possible and at latest upon publication. Data
should be in a machine-readable format, with well-documented instructions, and distributed:
through institutions that have demonstrated the capability to provide long-term stewardship and
access. This will enable other researchers to replicate empirical results.
5. Publicly funded data should be open: publicly funded research work that generates or uses
data should ensure that the data is open, free to use, reuse and redistribute under an open
license – and specifically, it should not be kept unavailable or sold under a proprietary license.
Funding agencies and organizations disbursing public funds have a central role to play and
should establish policies and mandates that support these principles, including appropriate costs
for long-term data availability in the funding of research and the evaluation of such policies3, and
independent funding for systematic evaluation of open data policies and use.
6. Usable and discoverable: as simply making data available may not be sufficient for reusing it,
data publishers and repository managers should endeavour to also make the data usable and
discoverable by others for example: documentation, the use of standard code lists, etc., all help
make data more interoperable and reusable and submission of the data to standard registries and
of common metadata enable greater discoverability.
Reasons and Background
Reproducibility: For economic research to be reliable and trusted, it should be possible to scrutinise
and reproduce research findings. This is difficult, or impossible, if data and analysis is not made
available. Making material openly available reduces to a minimum the barriers for doing reproducible
research.
Knowledge as a public good: Data and code should be viewed as a public good, with the greatest
benefit coming where it is available freely and openly. Publicly funded research is done in the public
interest and should be openly available for the public to access.
Stability and effectiveness of markets: Transparent and available information can be central to well
-functioning markets. The best way to ensure transparency and that information is available to all
relevant parties, including regulators and researchers, is to make data open.
Public engagement and trust: Economics and specifically economic data and analysis, plays an
important role in many areas of policy-making that directly affect all members of our societies. As
such, public engagement and trust are important and openness is central to gaining and retaining
trust and increasing engagement.
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Potential new uses of the data: In many cases the best use of data may ultimately be found outside
of its immediate use and making data available may generate new research and create new
knowledge. By making material open we ensure that experimentation is easy and that it can be easily
reused and repurposed.
Equitable access: Researchers and research institutions from around the world, including the Global
South, can access economic research, data and analysis with no discrimination about their affiliation,
research purpose or ability to pay for access.
Higher impact of research: Making economic research and data openly available delivers better
dissemination of research outcomes and enhances the visibility and the impact of research.
Democratisation of economics research: Much of economic research is done with the purpose of
improving the economy, policies and institutions. Open economic research will lead to higher citizen
engagement leading to better policies and better lives.
Better resources for education and training: The opening up of economic research aids in the
education of a new generation of economists and social scientists who will be able to produce high
quality research.
Better service delivery and new business models: Open data can improve the quality and
consistency of the public services by exposing inefficiencies and corruption and delivering new ideas
on the effective use of public resources. It can also result in better integration of supply chains,
harness innovation and revolutionise business models and stimulate entrepreneurship, generating
knowledge externalities in the economy.
1. http://opendefinition.org/↩2. Open licenses for code are those conformant with the Open Source Definition see http://opensource.org/licenses and open
licenses for data should be conformant with the open definition, see http://opendefinition.org/licenses/#Data.↩3. A good example of an important positive
developments in this direction from the United States is http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf ↩
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SIGNATORIES
Featured Signatures
Albert Bravo-Biosca, member of the Advisory Panel of the Open Economics Working Group.
Bronwyn Hall, Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California at Berkeley and
Professor of Economics of Technology and Innovation at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands.
Christian Zimmermann, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and RePEc team.
David Levine, John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor, Washington University in St. Louis and
Professor of Economics and Joint Chair RSCAS, European University Institute.
Dietmar Harnoff, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law,
Munich.
Eustáquio Reis, Senior Research Economist at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea).
Hans-Peter Brunner, Senior Economist, Regional Economic Integration, Asian Development Bank.
John Rust, Professor of Economics, Georgetown University.
Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of
Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, University of
Toronto.
Merce Crosas, Director of Data Science, IQSS, Harvard University.
Micah Altman, Head/Scientist, Program on Information Science, MIT Libraries.
Nikos Askitas, IZA – Institute for the Study of Labor.
Peter Murray-Rust, OKFN Advisory Board and co-author Panton Principles.
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Philip E. Bourne, Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Industrial Alliances & Professor of
Pharmacology, University of California San Diego.
Rishab Ghosh, member of the Advisory Panel of the Open Economics Working Group.
Rufus Pollock, Founder Open Knowledge Foundation, Associate Centre for IP and Information Law,
University of Cambridge.
Sven Vlaeminck, ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
Tariq Khokhar, Data Scientist, the World Bank.
Tim Hubbard, member of the Advisory Panel of the Open Economics Working Group.
Timo Borst, ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
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