The mantra of the nascent open-data movement - that scientists should share online all data underlying their findings - sounds simple. But it can be tough to achieve in practice. An informal audit of one of the movements biggest proponents, the Public Library of Science (PLOS), shows that not everyone is complying with the publisher's pioneering open-data mandate, and hints at the challenges that journals can face in enforcing open-data goals. The idea that the progress of research will be accelerated if others can easily and freely build on data sets is gaining currency. Last week the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, announced that it would demand open data of the researchers it funds.
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