The State of Open Data 2021
The longest-running longitudinal survey and analysis on open data
Concerns over misuse and lack of credit for open sharing
Since 2016, we have monitored levels of data sharing and usage. Over the years, we have had 21,000 responses from researchers worldwide providing unparalleled insight into their motivations, challenges, perceptions, and behaviours toward open data.
In our sixth survey, we asked about motivations as well as perceived discoverability and credibility of data that is shared openly. The State of Open Data is a critical piece of information that enables us to identify the barriers to open data from a researcher perspective, laying the foundation for future action.
Researchers are left to navigate a system that makes it harder than not to share and where, most alarmingly, the public may only fully understand the importance of data sharing when it’s shown to have gone dramatically wrong. There’s no time to lose.
Ginny Barbour | Open Access Australasia
Key findings from this year’s survey
- 73% support the idea of a national mandate for making research data openly available
- 52% said funders should make the sharing of research data part of their requirements for awarding grants
- 47% said they would be motivated to share their data if there was a journal or publisher requirement to do so
- About a third of respondents indicated that they have reused their own or someone else’s openly accessible data more during the pandemic than before
- There are growing concerns over misuse and lack of credit for open sharing
The answers lie in the harmony needed between policies, infrastructure and practices.
Natasha Simons | Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)
What you’ll find inside:
- Foreword by Natasha Simons, Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)
- Three key findings from this year’s State of Open Data survey
- The role of data curation in enhancing data and metadata quality
- A day in the life of a data curator: the steps, challenges, and rewards of the data review process
- Open Source and Open Data: Collaboration is Key
- Consolidating research data management infrastructure: a vital piece of theFAIR jigsaw & (meta)data quality improvements
- How publishers can uphold research quality through embedded data support
- Open data and the life sciences: the turning point
- J-STAGE Data: evidence data platform for Japan’s learned society publishing
- Tips for engaging your researchers in open data sharing practices- practical guidance from – the University of Pretoria
- Tips for how to engage your researchers in open data sharing practices
- How open data can help validate research and combat scientific misinformation
Watch the on-demand webinar for the 2022 State of Open Data Report
On-demand webinar – watch today.
Find out the latest on researchers’ attitudes toward and practices of open data in the seventh installment of the State of Open Data survey and report.
Mark Hahnel is the CEO and founder of Figshare. For the last eight years, Mark has been leading the development of research data infrastructure, with the core aim of reusable and interoperable academic data.
