Data Sharing and Re-Use; Barriers and Incentives.

Data sharing and re-use backed by sound data management practices by scientists should be widespread in today’s research data environment of funder mandates, growth of data repositories, and awareness of the possibilities and benefits of data deposition and re-use. International surveys of scientists in 2011 and 2014, conducted as part of the NSF-funded DataONE project, show some progress in research data management practices, but many barriers remain. Lack of time and funding are still barriers to data deposition and sharing by individual scientists, while concerns about the need to publish findings first or concerns about whether data should be made available to others are also still reported. Incentives to deposit data can include assurance of proper citation of data or potential collaborations. Education or assistance with good data practices that may be perceived as time consuming (such as applying metadata standards) may also overcome barriers. This talk will describe and compare some key results of the scientist surveys.