Open data sharing in pig welfare science accelerates progress by enabling replication, meta-analysis, and cross-country comparison of welfare interventions and their outcomes.
Science progresses faster when data is shared rather than siloed. Pig welfare research particularly benefits from open data because many key questions require large sample sizes across diverse farm systems impossible for any single research group to study. Open welfare databases enable researchers to test interventions, identify patterns, and build evidence bases that single studies cannot provide. Normalising open data expectations in grant requirements and journal policies would accelerate welfare science progress.