A Decade of the YODA Project: Advancing Clinical Trial Data Sharing through Transparency, Independence, and Collaboration

The Yale University Open Data Access (YODA) Project, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson since 2014, is an academic-led initiative that promotes independent, transparent, and responsible sharing of clinical trial data. Over the past decade, the YODA Project has made individual participant-level data and supporting documentation from an increasing number of clinical trials available to investigators for independent studies. As of March 31, 2025, there were 482 clinical trials across 86 medical conditions and 49 products available for a median of 6.6 years (interquartile range, 5.0-9.0). A total of 485 data requests have been submitted, with nearly all requests approved (463, 95.5%) or under review (7, 1.4%), and investigators gained data access in a median of 82.5 days (52.0-133.0) from request submission. Among the 463 approved requests, 139 (30.0%) have thus far resulted in at least one peer-reviewed article, yielding 165 articles. The YODA Project experience demonstrates how a data sharing platform has supported a wide range of scientific inquiries and highlights the practical value of responsible data sharing in promoting transparency, building trust, and advancing clinical research.