When Are Researchers Willing to Share Their Data? – Impacts of Values and Uncertainty on Open Data in Academia | Stefan Stieglitz et al. | PLoS ONE 15(7), July 1, 2020.
This study has explored the impact of perceived value and uncertainty factors in the context of academia on researchers’ acceptance of open data as the idea that researchers should not only publish their findings in the form of articles or reports,
but also share corresponding original data sets.
Like
Be the first to like this
Community Manager, Open Research Community
Please sign in or register for FREE
If you are a registered user on Open Research Community, please sign in
Based on exploratory and confirmatory data analyses, this article has found that most academic researchers can be expected to embrace Open Data when the perceived advantages outweigh the disadvantages. These findings indicate that the adoption of Open Access in relation to empirical data could be affected by the uncertainty surrounding the perceived value of sharing research data. More specifically, using a representative sample of researchers from major German universities, this study has found that, among uncertainty-related factors, the fear of data misuse has significantly increased the intentions of sharing research data, whereas the fear of losing the uniqueness of one's research has decreased the latter. Additionally, this study indicates that the perceived value of data sharing is a function of not only the advantages and disadvantages of switching to Open Access but also the career and networking benefits of doing so.