BARRIERS TO DATA

SHARING

Cathy Giffi

Director, Strategic Market Analysis

April 20, 2015

About Me

Catherine (Cathy) Giffi is Director, Strategic Market Analysis, for Wiley.

Her team of talented analysts are charged with producing groundbreaking research on issues impacting librarians, societies, and researchers, including Open Access, Researcher Workflow, Data Sharing, Society Member Benefits, and Reviewer Benefits.

She holds a Masters degree in Publishing from NYU and, in addition to Wiley, has led large scale research projects for the Sundance Film Festival and VOGUE magazine.

WHY STUDY DATA

SHARING NOW?

Data Sharing Is Older Than Wiley

NIH Recognizes Importance of Sharing

Accessed April 17, 2015

NSF Mandates Data Management Plans

Accessed April 17, 2015

WILEY RESEARCHER

DATA SHARING SURVEYMarch 2014

Survey

Responses By

the Numbers

Our objective was to establish a

baseline view of data sharing

practices, attitudes, and

motivations globally, with

participation from researchers in

every scholarly field.

• 90,000researchers invited to participate.

• 3,000responses recorded.

• 203 fields of study were recorded.

• 85 countries participated.

• 14 days to participate.

Key Findings Most researchers are sharing their data.

Data shared is typically <10 GB.

The most common type of data that is being shared is flat, tabular data (.csv, .txt, .xl)

Data is usually “archived” on hard drives.

Those not sharing have a variety of reasons.

Where Did

You Make Your

Data Publicly

Available?

• Supplemental material (67%)

• At a conference (57%)

• Informal paths/by request (42%)

• Personal, institutional, or project webpage (37%)

• Institutional data repository (26%)

• Discipline-specific data repository (19%)

• General purpose data repository, e.g. Dryad,

figshare (6%)

• Other (5%)

Of those surveyed, 66% have made data publicly

available (ever).

Why

Researchers Do

Not Share DataIP or confidentiality issues (83%)

Research might be “scooped” (70%)

Concerns about misinterpretation (32%)

Insufficient time/resources (32%)

No mandate from Funder/Institution (13%)

Unsure how, where to share (8%)

Variation by Field of Research

Life Science*

• Concerns that their

research will be

scooped (56%)

• Intellectual property or

confidentiality issues

(54%)

• Concerns about

misinterpretation or

misuse (43%)

Health Science

• Intellectual property or

confidentiality issues

(68%)

• Ethical concerns (36%)

• Concerns about

misinterpretation or

misuse (36%)

*Most likely to share data

Variation by Field of Research

Physical Science

• Intellectual property or

confidentiality issues

(47%)

• No funder or institutional

require (29%)

• Concerns that their

research will be scooped

(27%)

Social Science & Humanities*

• Intellectual property or

confidentiality issues

(47%)

• Concerns about being

scooped (30%)

• No funder or institutional

requirement (28%)

*Least likely to share data

Variation by Country

Echoes of Our Findings

“[Researchers] cite lack of time, money and universally

agreed upon standards, as well as technical barriers, as

the main reasons they hold data back. Of course, there are

psychological and cultural reasons, too: a sense of

ownership over such a hard-won resource and a fear of

scrutiny and of being “scooped.”

Neurodata Without Borders

August 2014

Echoes of Our Findings

“Twenty potential barriers were identified

and classified in six categories:

Technical, Motivational, Economic,

Political, Legal, Ethical.”

BMC Public Health

November 2014

Takeaways

• Sharing data is crucial for the

advancement of science.

• Recognizing the barriers to

sharing is important.

• Some barriers can be more

easily overcome.

• Others will take the support

of the scholarly community.

For More

Information

To Share or Not to Share, That is the Research Data

Question

Scholarly Kitchen

How and Why Researchers Share Data, and Why

They Don’t

Exchanges

Cathy Giffi

Director, Strategic

Market Analysis, Wiley

cgiffi@wiley.com

THANKS!