The sharing of the data generated by research projects is increasingly being recognised as an academic priority by funders and researchers. For example, out of 110 listed funders on the JULIET 2 service, 32 have data policies of some form. The topic has been discussed by national and international organisations, for example, ICSU (the International Council for Science), the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the UK's Royal Society. The public statements that emerge from these scientific bodies call for both research transparency and freely available access to research data created with public funding for possible reuse. The rights associated with the sharing of data and the environment in which it can be done is also of interest to publishers. This interest can be attributed to two motivating factors: to support the academic function of data such as the corroboration of research findings and the facilitation of the re-use of data; and to respond to a strategic, commercial development, for instance, an engagement with the rights, process and environment of data sharing. Currently some publishers are introducing contractual policies on the archiving and sharing of data in addition to policies governing the deposit and sharing of research articles through repositories. The issue of policies on sharing set out by academic journals has been raised by scientific organisations, such as the US National Academy of Sciences, which urges journals to make clear statements of their sharing policies. On the other hand, the publishing community whilst broadly supporting the principle of open and accessible research data expresses concerns over the intellectual property implications of archiving shared data.