Guest Post: Scientist Variability & Consequences for Data Sharing

"Scientist variability is high. I know it’s risky to use statistical terms in non-statistical contexts on this blog, but it’s a critical component of attitudes towards data sharing. This variability is manifested in many ways: what they study (ecologists, herpetologists, geneticists, microbiologists), how they study it (modelers, experimentalists, observationalists), their level of expertise (graduate students; postdocs; and BS, MS, and PhD-level researchers), and their professional affiliations (academic, government, non-governmental organization, museum). Given this variability, it’s not surprising that there exists diverse points of view about topics surrounding data. This is especially true for attitudes about data sharing...."