A three-day conference of leaders of the major professional societies that publish ecology, evolution, and organismal biology journals will be convened. This conference has two goals: (1) develop a common policy statement on data sharing and archiving, with a roadmap for implementation of this policy by the societies and (2) to plan for one or more subsequent meetings to address such issues as technological, intellectual property, economics, and training concerns. There is an increasing need for researchers in the biological sciences to address global problems, using data collected from around the world. As computing speeds and data storage capacities have increased and costs have dropped, technology has become less an obstacle to ready data sharing than are the ingrained habits of the scientific community. Changing these habits requires development of technological means, cultural inducements, and training opportunities that make biological data, information, and knowledge available to all potential users, including scientists, resource managers, decision-makers, and students. Such systemic change is far more likely to be successful if professional societies and funding agencies work together, rather than acting alone. The consensus policy statement and roadmap will contain a specific set of target steps and dates leading toward requirements for deposition in public archives of all data supporting published papers. Implementation of this roadmap will help address the cultural obstacles that constitute the primary obstacle to universal data accessibility.
