Surveying research data-sharing practices in US social sciences: a knowledge infrastructure-inspired conceptual framework
ISSN: 1468-4527
Article publication date: 22 February 2022
Issue publication date: 4 October 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study develops a conceptual framework and a series of instruments for capturing researchers' data-sharing practices in the social sciences, by synergizing the theory of knowledge infrastructure and the theory of remote scientific collaboration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper triangulates the results of three studies of data sharing across the social sciences, with 144 participants in total, and classifies the confusion, “frictions” and opportunities arising from such sharing into four overarching dimensions: data characteristics, technological infrastructure, research culture and individual drivers.
Findings
Based on the sample, the findings suggest that the majority of faculty and students in social science research do not share their data because many of them are unaware of the benefits and methods of doing so. Additional findings regarding social scientists' data-sharing behaviors include: (1) those who do share qualitative data in data repositories are more likely to share their research tools than their raw data; and (2) perceived technical support and extrinsic motivation are both strong predictors of qualitative data sharing (a previously underresearched subtype of social science data sharing).
Originality/value
The study confirms the previously hypothesized nature of “friction” in qualitative data sharing in the social sciences, arising chiefly from the time and labor intensiveness of ensuring data privacy.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0079.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in Taiwan, under MOST 111-2636-H-002 -004 - and MOST 110-2634-F-002-045, and the Center for Research in Econometric Theory and Applications (Grant no. 110L900204) from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
In the interest of transparency, data sharing and reproducibility, the author(s) of this article have made the data underlying their research openly available. It can be accessed by following the link here: https://osf.io/7fchb/?view_only=029cafb3265f44b4be5e7029e7d73425.
Citation
Jeng, W. and He, D. (2022), "Surveying research data-sharing practices in US social sciences: a knowledge infrastructure-inspired conceptual framework", Online Information Review, Vol. 46 No. 7, pp. 1275-1292. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0079
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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