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Despite all the good that science has wrought over the years, the way we manage scientific data is fundamentally flawed.
Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Scientists stand on the shoulders of their peers and predecessors via peer-reviewed literature. The idea is that the literature is reliable by dint of being peer-reviewed, and thus researchers can safely build upon what they learn from it. Yet neither the reviewers who admitted those papers into the annals of scientific canon nor the scientists who wish to build upon it have access to the data used to produce those papers.
That means that they cannot ensure that they stand on solid ground by examining the data and doing their own analysis. They cannot analyze the data using alternative methods, or use it to address additional research questions.
Indeed, although the papers are preserved for posterity, there is no guarantee that the data will be; even if a researcher is inclined to share his data with anyone who asks, in the absence of a well-designed system for data preservation the data could be lost in any number of ways before he has a chance to pass it on to other researchers.
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