‘‘If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’’. It is nearly impossible to describe the essential role of sharing results and ideas for research progress better than Isaac Newton. Three centuries later, the importance of sharing knowledge is made even more compelling by the increased rapidity with which data are produced and the enormous possibilities for their dissemination created by Internet. Certainly, there is now wide consensus in the scientific community about the importance of achieving an effective, responsible and