The HUPO Proteomics Standards initiative has dedicated the last 6 years to the design and implementation of common data reporting and exchange standards enabling the transfer of proteomics data from originator to collaborator to a final public repository immediately prior to publication. The user community is now benefiting from this work, with XML formats to exchange and import data into databases, allowing direct access and comparability irrespective of the originating instrumentation. Public repositories now allow researchers to view and search published experimental data and reference datasets are becoming available for benchmarking purposes. Collaborations between databases are exposing these datasets to an ever increasing audience and enabling exciting new science to be derived from existing data.