Background: With data becoming a centerpiece of modern scientific discovery, data sharing by scientists is now a crucial element of scientific progress. This article aims to provide an in-depth examination of the practices and perceptions of data management, including data storage, data sharing, and data use and reuse by scientists around the world. Methods: The Usability and Assessment Working Group of DataONE, an NSF-funded environmental cyberinfrastructure project, distributed a survey to a multinational and multidisciplinary sample of scientific researchers in a two-waves approach in 2017-2018. We focused our analysis on examining the differences across age groups, sub-disciplines of science, and sectors of employment. Findings: Most respondents displayed what we describe as high and moderate risk data practices by storing their data on their personal computer, departmental servers or USB drives. Respondents appeared to be satisfied with short-term storage solutions; however, only half of them are satisfied with available mechanisms for storing data beyond the life of the process. Data sharing and data reuse were viewed positively: over 85% of respondents admitted they would be willing to share their data with others and said they would use data collected by others if it could be easily accessed. A vast majority of respondents felt that the lack of access to data generated by other researchers or institutions was a major impediment to progress in science at large, yet only about a half thought that it restricted their own ability to answer scientific questions. Although attitudes towards data sharing and data use and reuse are mostly positive, practice does not always support data storage, sharing, and future reuse. Assistance through data managers or data librarians, readily available data repositories for both long-term and short-term storage, and educational programs for both awareness and to help engender good data practices are clearly needed.

To determine the extent to which research data services (RDS) are supported in academic libraries and how that has changed over a decade, in 2019 a research team led by Carol Tenopir at the University of Tennessee Center for Information and Communication Studies, in collaboration with ACRL-Choice, surveyed academic library directors in the United States and Canada. This survey allowed us to compare results with a similar survey conducted in 2012. The goal of both studies was to discover the types of data services offered, the staffing deployed or anticipated for such services, the training necessary to support RDS, and RDS plans for the future. The associated white paper can be accessed at http://www.choice360.org/librarianship/whitepaper and downloaded at https://www.research.net/r/CHOICERDSWP

Open data policies have been introduced by governments, funders, and publishers over the past decade. Previous research showed a growing recognition by scientists of the benefits of data-sharing and reuse, but actual practices lag and are not always compliant with new regulations. The goal of this study is to investigate motives, attitudes, and data practices of the community of earth and planetary geophysicists, a discipline believed to have accepting attitudes towards data sharing and reuse. A better understanding of the attitudes and current data-sharing practices of this scientific community could enable funders, publishers, data managers, and librarians to design systems and services that help scientists understand and adhere to mandates and to create practices, tools, and services that are scientist-focused. An online survey was distributed to the members of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), producing 1372 responses from 116 countries. The attitudes of researchers to data sharing and reuse were generally positive, but in practice scientists had concerns about sharing their own research data. These concerns include the possibility of potential data misuse and the need for assurance of proper citation and acknowledgement. Training and assistance in good data management practices are lacking in many scientific fields and might help to alleviate these doubts.

This is the data set for the Academic Libraries and Research Data Services study.

The incorporation of data sharing into the research lifecycle is an important part of modern scholarly debate. In this study, the DataONE Usability and Assessment working group addresses two primary goals: To examine the current state of data sharing and reuse perceptions and practices among research scientists as they compare to the 2009/2010 baseline study, and to examine differences in practices and perceptions across age groups, geographic regions, and subject disciplines. We distributed surveys to a multinational sample of scientific researchers at two different time periods (October 2009 to July 2010 and October 2013 to March 2014) to observe current states of data sharing and to see what, if any, changes have occurred in the past 3–4 years. We also looked at differences across age, geographic, and discipline-based groups as they currently exist in the 2013/2014 survey. Results point to increased acceptance of and willingness to engage in data sharing, as well as an increase in actual data sharing behaviors. However, there is also increased perceived risk associated with data sharing, and specific barriers to data sharing persist. There are also differences across age groups, with younger respondents feeling more favorably toward data sharing and reuse, yet making less of their data available than older respondents. Geographic differences exist as well, which can in part be understood in terms of collectivist and individualist cultural differences. An examination of subject disciplines shows that the constraints and enablers of data sharing and reuse manifest differently across disciplines. Implications of these findings include the continued need to build infrastructure that promotes data sharing while recognizing the needs of different research communities. Moving into the future, organizations such as DataONE will continue to assess, monitor, educate, and provide the infrastructure necessary to support such complex grand science challenges.

Background: Scientific research in the 21st century is more data intensive and collaborative than in the past. It is important to study the data practices of researchers –data accessibility, discovery, re-use, preservation and, particularly, data sharing. Data sharing is a valuable part of the scientific method allowing for verification of results and extending research from prior results. Methodology/Principal Findings: A total of 1329 scientists participated in this survey exploring current data sharing practices and perceptions of the barriers and enablers of data sharing. Scientists do not make their data electronically available to others for various reasons, including insufficient time and lack of funding. Most respondents are satisfied with their current processes for the initial and short-term parts of the data or research lifecycle (collecting their research data; searching for, describing or cataloging, analyzing, and short-term storage of their data) but are not satisfied with long-term data preservation. Many organizations do not provide support to their researchers for data management both in the short- and long-term. If certain conditions are met (such as formal citation and sharing reprints) respondents agree they are willing to share their data. There are also significant differences and approaches in data management practices based on primary funding agency, subject discipline, age, work focus, and world region. Conclusions/Significance: Barriers to effective data sharing and preservation are deeply rooted in the practices and culture of the research process as well as the researchers themselves. New mandates for data management plans from NSF and other federal agencies and world-wide attention to the need to share and preserve data could lead to changes. Large scale programs, such as the NSF-sponsored DataNET (including projects like DataONE) will both bring attention and resources to the issue and make it easier for scientists to apply sound data management principles.