Open Access, Data and Methods Considerations for Publishing in Precision MedicineSheryl P. Denker, PhD; Meg Byrne, PhD; Joerg Heber, PhD

Public Library of Science (PLOS)1160 Battery Street, Suite 225; San Francisco, CA; 94111

ABSTRACTOpen Access to the scientific literature is moving into a new era of open data and Open Science. Open is no longer just about free and unrestricted access to research; it's also about open data, improved reproducibility with better methods reporting and policies that promote a more open ethos in science. Research funders, both government and private – including the National Institutes of Health and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – now commonly require work published by their grantees to be made available through Open Access licensing terms. Increasingly, funders are also considering data availability policies. This has implications for prospective authors, especially those involved in clinical or translational research based on patient samples, and scientists are advised to consider these issues early in the research and publication cycle. Since 2014 PLOS journals require authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, when at all possible. Since that time, PLOS has published more than 70,000 research articles by authors submitting Data Availability Statements. Appropriate credit and recognition for, and reuse of, datasets benefits researchers and patients alike, speeding advances in precision medicine.