Data sharing in circadian rhythm and mental health research: current status, challenges, recommendations and future directions

Data sharing is a cornerstone of modern scientific research, playing a critical role in fostering greater collaboration, enhancing reproducibility, transparency and efficiency of scientific discoveries, and integrating diverse data sources. In circadian rhythm research, data sharing is particularly important due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the data, which includes molecular profiles, physiological measurements, clinical data and sensor-based data. UK research funders, such as Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and UK Research and Innovation, have established data-sharing policies to promote open science and enhance research transparency. Despite these policies, a recent assessment within the UK Circadian Mental Health Network (CMHN), which incorporates an analysis of publications from several countries, revealed that data sharing remains limited. Significant challenges including data complexity, privacy and ethical considerations, technical issues and entrenched academic culture are major barriers to progress. This perspective article highlights the current state of data sharing in circadian and mental health research, identifies key obstacles and compares these practices with broader trends. We also provide insights from principal investigators within the CMHN on the reasons for limited data sharing. To address these challenges, researchers can foster a culture of openness by seeking training, planning ahead in ethics processes and data management plans and using data outputs in research assessment. We outline CMHN's future plans to deliver training on Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable principles, offer data curation services and provide ethical guidelines. By adopting these strategies, we aim to improve data-sharing practices, ultimately advancing our understanding of circadian rhythms and their implications for mental health.