Predicting psychologists’ approach to academic reciprocity and data sharing with a theory of collective action
ISSN: 0264-0473
Article publication date: 19 April 2023
Issue publication date: 24 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the data sharing habits of psychologists with respect to academic reciprocity.
Design/methodology/approach
A research model was developed based on Ostrom’s (2003) theory of collective action to map psychologists’ underlying motivations for data sharing. The model was validated by data from a survey of 427 psychologists, primarily from the psychological sciences and related disciplines.
Findings
This study found that data sharing among psychologists is driven primarily by their perceptions of community benefits, academic reciprocity and the norms of data sharing. This study also found that academic reciprocity is significantly influenced by psychologists’ perceptions of community benefits, academic reputation and the norms of data sharing. Both academic reputation and academic reciprocity are affected by psychologists’ prior experiences with data reuse. Additionally, psychologists’ perceptions of community benefits and the norms of data sharing are significantly affected by the perception of their academic reputation.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests that Ostrom’s (2003) theory of collective action can provide a new theoretical lens in understanding psychologists’ data sharing behaviours.
Practical implications
This study suggests several practical implications for the design and promotion of data sharing in the research community of psychology.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the initial studies that applied the theory of collective action to the mechanisms of reputation, community benefits, norms and reciprocity in psychologists’ data sharing behaviour. This research demonstrates that perceived community benefits, academic reputation and the norms of data sharing can all encourage academic reciprocity, and psychologists’ perceptions of community benefits, academic reciprocity and data sharing norms all facilitate their data sharing intentions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge ProQuest Pivot for allowing them to use its Community of Scientists Scholar Database to recruit survey participants. The authors also would like to acknowledge Lindsey M. Harper for reviewing this article and providing extensive feedbacks.
All data have been made publicly available via Open ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3886/E101720V1
Citation
Lee, T.H., Jung, M. and Kim, Y. (2023), "Predicting psychologists’ approach to academic reciprocity and data sharing with a theory of collective action", The Electronic Library, Vol. 41 No. 2/3, pp. 223-241. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2022-0232
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited