What Do (and Don't) Researchers Know About Data Sharing? - Copyright Clearance Center

lterrat's bookmarks 2017-04-29

Summary:

"Despite their potential for driving economic, social, and scientific progress, many research datasets, statistics, transcripts, and survey results remain hidden from view—often on the researcher’s computer desktop.

Encouragement—and, in some cases, mandates—from research funders is starting to change that.  Rules about data sharing vary from funder to funder. Wellcome, for example, requires researchers to submit a plan for data management 'when the dataset holds clear potential for re-use.'  The NIH also requires a data sharing plan, but only for funding requests exceeding $500,000.

Although many researchers support the idea of open data, a survey conducted for The State of Open Data reveals that many questions and some confusion remains.

Here are eight key takeaways from the 2,000 researchers who responded to a survey about their level of awareness about open data, their attitudes toward it, and their experience with its use:

  1. Most researchers are already on board: About three-quarters of the researchers who responded to the survey have already opted to make their research available.
  2. Researchers demonstrating the highest level of awareness about open data reside, by discipline, in the social sciences; by geography, in the Netherlands, Russia, and Denmark.  Interestingly, the three largest producers of research publications – the US, Germany, and the UK – rank only in the third tier of open data awareness.
  3. Age and career progression don’t appear to factor into awareness: Throughout the report, principal investigators and professors showed the same level of awareness as PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.
  4. Researchers value the credit that comes with data sharing: Almost 70% of researchers see as much value in a data citation as they do an article citation. Just 2% see no value at all in data citations.
  5. Many have significant gaps in their knowledge about how and whether to make their data open: More than half of respondents are unsure about the licensing conditions through which they’ve shared their data; many don’t know whether their funders, institutions, or publishers require them to make their data open; and all would welcome more guidance on compliance.
  6. Confusion over dataset citations: Fewer than half of those researchers questioned know how to cite a secondary research dataset with confidence–which correlates to how much they use, share, and value open data.
  7. Benefits of having an open mind about open data: A researcher who uses and shares data regularly is more likely to:
    • Be aware of data that is freely available
    • Understand how open data is funded
    • Collaborate with other researchers
  8. The future’s bright, the future’s open: Of those researchers who have never made their data openly available, 94% are either considering or definitely planning to do so in the future."

Link:

http://www.copyright.com/velocity-of-content/dont-researchers-know-data-sharing/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » lterrat's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.unfamiliarity oa.policies

Date tagged:

04/29/2017, 15:12

Date published:

04/29/2017, 11:12