DATA ACCESS, OWNERSHIP, AND CONTROL - TOWARD EMPIRICAL-STUDIES OF ACCESS PRACTICES

Issues surrounding data access, ownership, and control raise important issues for science policy. The new sociology of science has examined many features of scientific knowledge and practice, but has made only preliminary efforts to study data access. Building on ethnographic stu dies of scientific laboratories (and other constructivist work), this article suggests how the new sociology of science can study data acces s empirically. The article develops a perspective based on an analysis of the process of scientific production and the creation, packaging, and exchange of data streams. It also provides an example of how const ructivist studies can contribute to policy analysis.