On February 11-12, 2020, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) held a very interesting workshop on the role of what they are terming "generalist" data repositories (as opposed to discipline or sub-discipline specific repositories, possibly further limited to specific types of data sets). I was able to catch only a small part of the workshop, but what I saw was really excellent. NLM has recently issued a summary of the meeting, and the video recordings of the presentations are also available (there are links in the summary). See

This report is particularly salient in conjunction with the work of the recent National Academies Committee on Forecasting Biomedical Data Life Cycle Costs, which recently issued its final report. This report in essence discusses the role of generalist (in the report's language "State 3) vs specialized ("State 2") repositories at great length. I note that Dr. Maryann Martone, who co-chaired the February workshop, served on the National Academies Committee; in the interests of full disclosure, I note I was also a member of this committee. For more about the work of the committee, see

Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data

This study will develop and demonstrate a framework for forecasting long-term costs for preserving, archiving, and accessing various types of biomedical data and estimating potential future benefits to research.

The report is online here:

Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data

Biomedical research results in the collection and storage of increasingly large and complex data sets. Preserving those data so that they are discoverable, accessible, and interpretable accelerates scientific discovery and improves health outcomes, but requires that researchers, data curators, and data archivists consider the long-term disposition of data and the costs of preserving, archiving, and promoting access to them. Life Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data examines and assesses approache...

I would also direct attention to the recent guest blog post by Dr. Susan Gregurick, Associate Director for Data Science and Director, Office of Data Science Strategy, National Institutes of Health, on issues related to generalist repositories at

Some Insights on the Roles and Uses of Generalist Repositories – NLM Musings from the Mezzanine

Guest post by Susan Gregurick, PhD, Associate Director for Data Science and Director, Office of Data Science Strategy, NIH Data repositories are a useful way for researchers to both share data and …

Finally, let me say that while I think that the biomedical community's work in this area is particularly advanced and thus a great source of potential insights, these issues are important in all fields of data-intensive scholarship, not just biomedicine.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI