I am coming closer to something that I have had started realizing in an earlier post. Research is business. Business is time, money, people, and results.

Investors are grant money.
Products are publications.
Data are company investments.
Data are company property.
Scientists are CEOs.
Labs are corporations.

For instance: Always get permission from the PI before accessing data. The CEO controls the company and its investments. Always protect the data you collect. Other researchers may want access, but until the PI has finished mining the data, sharing is unlikely. This isn’t because the PI doesn’t like you or that the goal of scientific truth is unimportant. It just means that the PI wants get a return on the investment before offering it as free.