1. Data sharing practices and data availability upon request differ across scientific disciplines
- Author
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Rainer Küngas, Ester Oras, Heli Lukner, Äli Leijen, Karin Kogermann, Tuul Sepp, Helen Eenmaa, Leho Tedersoo, Kajar Köster, Marju Raju, Anastasiya Astapova, Margus Pedaste, Department of Forest Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS), Forest Soil Science and Biogeochemistry, and Ecosystem processes (INAR Forest Sciences)
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Statistics and Probability ,Computer science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Data management ,Science ,MEDLINE ,Library and Information Sciences ,Education ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,REPRODUCIBILITY ,QUALITY ,Quality (business) ,Scientific disciplines ,media_common ,CHALLENGES ,business.industry ,113 Computer and information sciences ,Data science ,Data availability ,Computer Science Applications ,Data sharing ,030104 developmental biology ,Evaluated data ,Survey data collection ,Molecular ecology ,Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty ,business ,Genetic databases ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Analysis ,Information Systems - Abstract
Data sharing is one of the cornerstones of modern science that enables large-scale analyses and reproducibility. We evaluated data availability in research articles across nine disciplines in Nature and Science magazines and recorded corresponding authors’ concerns, requests and reasons for declining data sharing. Although data sharing has improved in the last decade and particularly in recent years, data availability and willingness to share data still differ greatly among disciplines. We observed that statements of data availability upon (reasonable) request are inefficient and should not be allowed by journals. To improve data sharing at the time of manuscript acceptance, researchers should be better motivated to release their data with real benefits such as recognition, or bonus points in grant and job applications. We recommend that data management costs should be covered by funding agencies; publicly available research data ought to be included in the evaluation of applications; and surveillance of data sharing should be enforced by both academic publishers and funders. These cross-discipline survey data are available from the plutoF repository.
- Published
- 2021