Impact of Social Sciences – Journal policies that encourage data sharing prove extremely effective

"There is currently little incentive for researchers to share their data. But what if it was enough for journals to simply ask authors to make their data available? Michèle B. Nuijtenreports on a recent study that found journal policies that encourage data sharing to be extremely effective, with a steep increase in the percentage of articles with open data from the moment these policies took effect. Even something as seemingly frivolous as offering a badge to display on your paper as a reward for sharing data can have a transformative effect, not only on the overall availability of data but also on its relevance, usability and completeness, as well as on the rigour and quality of science as a whole."