The views, perspectives, and experiences of academic researchers with data sharing and reuse: A meta-synthesis

Authors : Laure Perrier, Erik Blondal, Heather MacDonald

Background

Funding agencies and research journals are increasingly demanding that researchers share their data in public repositories. Despite these requirements, researchers still withhold data, refuse to share, and deposit data that lacks annotation.

We conducted a meta-synthesis to examine the views, perspectives, and experiences of academic researchers on data sharing and reuse of research data.

Methods

We searched the published and unpublished literature for studies on data sharing by researchers in academic institutions. Two independent reviewers screened citations and abstracts, then full-text articles.

Data abstraction was performed independently by two investigators. The abstracted data was read and reread in order to generate codes. Key concepts were identified and thematic analysis was used for data synthesis.

Results

We reviewed 2005 records and included 45 studies along with 3 companion reports. The studies were published between 2003 and 2018 and most were conducted in North America (60%) or Europe (17%).

The four major themes that emerged were data integrity, responsible conduct of research, feasibility of sharing data, and value of sharing data. Researchers lack time, resources, and skills to effectively share their data in public repositories.

Data quality is affected by this, along with subjective decisions around what is considered to be worth sharing. Deficits in infrastructure also impede the availability of research data. Incentives for sharing data are lacking.

Conclusion

Researchers lack skills to share data in a manner that is efficient and effective. Improved infrastructure support would allow them to make data available quickly and seamlessly. The lack of incentives for sharing research data with regards to academic appointment, promotion, recognition, and rewards need to be addressed.

URL : The views, perspectives, and experiences of academic researchers with data sharing and reuse: A meta-synthesis

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234275.s002

Pratiques de communication dans la pratique de recherche des doctorant.e.s en biologie

Auteur/Author : Mélodie Faury

Dans cet article, je m’intéresse à une période particulière d’un parcours de chercheur : la thèse, moment d’engagement (ou de choix de non-engagement) dans une carrière de recherche scientifique.

Les entretiens sont effectués auprès de dix doctorant.e.s en biologie expérimentale ayant tous suivi la même formation universitaire à la recherche. Lors d’un entretien, je leur propose de rendre compte de leur pratique, tout en la mettant à distance en la commentant à partir du relevé de leurs pratiques de communication quotidiennes (courriers électroniques, réunions, conversations avec différents membres du laboratoire, téléphone, séminaires, etc.).

L’étude des pratiques de communication dans les pratiques de recherche des doctorant.e.s met en évidence la fréquence et la diversité des pratiques et des situations de communication dans lesquelles les doctorant.e.s se retrouvent impliqués au cours d’une semaine.

Ces situations structurent leur travail de recherche et s’organisent autour, ou à partir, de ce qui constitue leurs principales activités en tant que doctorant.e.s : les expériences à la paillasse, en premier lieu, associées à la mise en place et à l’entretien de collaborations ; l’écriture d’articles, leur soumission pour publication et la présentation des résultats obtenus, devant les membres de l’équipe, du laboratoire ou dans le cadre de congrès, colloques ou séminaires.

La méthode d’entretien choisie est intéressante à deux titres : elle permet d’une part de rendre compte d’un quotidien peu connu de la pratique de recherche de doctorant.e.s en biologie expérimentale, et d’autre part d’appréhender le rapport des étudiants en thèse à ce qui constitue leur pratique de la recherche, par l’explication et le commentaire du relevé de leurs pratiques de communication de la semaine précédent l’entretien.

Cette approche constitue pour les chercheurs-enquêtés une première forme de mise à distance de leur pratique et une occasion d’élaborer un discours, face au chercheur-enquêteur, sur eux-mêmes, sur leur pratique et sur la science et elle me permet de saisir à un premier niveau comment se construit un « rapport identitaire et culturel aux sciences » par l’expérience vécue de la pratique (rendre compte de ce qui structure la pratique) telle qu’elle est rapportée dans les discours (parler de la pratique, la commenter et se positionner).

URL : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02988079

Research Integrity Among PhD Students at the Faculty of Medicine: A Comparison of Three Scandinavian Universities

Authors : Bjørn Hofmann, Lone Bredahl Jensen, Mette Brandt Eriksen, Gert Helgesson, Niklas Juth, Søren Holm

This study investigates research integrity among PhD students in health sciences at three universities in Scandinavia (Stockholm, Oslo, Odense). A questionnaire with questions on knowledge, attitudes, experiences, and behavior was distributed to PhD students and obtained a response rate of 77.7%.

About 10% of the respondents agreed that research misconduct strictly defined (such as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, FFP) is common in their area of research, while slightly more agreed that other forms of misconduct is common.

A nonnegligible segment of the respondents was willing to fabricate, falsify, or omit contradicting data if they believe that they are right in their overall conclusions. Up to one third reported to have added one or more authors unmerited.

Results showed a negative correlation between “good attitudes” and self-reported misconduct and a positive correlation between how frequent respondents thought that misconduct occurs and whether they reported misconduct themselves.

This reveals that existing educational and research systems partly fail to foster research integrity.

URL : Research Integrity Among PhD Students at the Faculty of Medicine: A Comparison of Three Scandinavian Universities

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264620929230

Information School academics and the value of their personal digital archives

Authors : Loukia Drosopoulou, Andrew M. Cox

Introduction

This paper explores the value that academics in an information school assign to their digital files and how this relates to their personal information management and personal digital archiving practices.

Method

An interpretivist qualitative approach was adopted with data from in-depth interviews and participant-led tours of their digital storage space.

Analysis

The approach taken was thematic analysis.

Results

Participants placed little value on their digital material beyond the value of its immediate use. They did not attach worth to their digital files for reuse by others, for sentiment, to project their identity or for the study of the development of the discipline or the study of the creative process.

This was reflected in storage and file-naming practices, and the lack of curatorial activity.

Conclusions

This paper is one of the first to investigate academics’ personal information management and personal digital archiving practices, especially to focus on the value of digital possessions.

The paper begins to uncover the importance of wider contextual factors in shaping such practices. Institutions need to do more to encourage academics to recognise the diverse types of value in the digital material they create.

URL : http://www.informationr.net/ir/25-3/paper872.html

Navigating Open Science as Early Career Feminist Researchers

Authors : Madeleine Pownall, Catherine Talbot, Anna Henschel, Alexandra Lautarescu, Kelly Lloyd, Helena Hartmann, Kohinoor Darda, Karen Tang, Parise Carmichael-Murphy, Jaclyn Siegel

Open Science aims to improve the rigour, robustness, and reproducibility of psychological research. Despite resistance from some academics, the Open Science movement has been championed by some Early Career Researchers (ECRs), who have proposed innovative new tools and methods to promote and employ open research principles.

Feminist ECRs have much to contribute to this emerging way of doing research. However, they face unique barriers, which may prohibit their full engagement with the Open Science movement.

We, ten feminist ECRs in psychology, from a diverse range of academic and personal backgrounds, explore Open Science through a feminist lens, to consider how voice and power may be negotiated in unique ways for ECRs. Taking a critical and intersectional approach, we discuss how feminist early career research may be complemented or challenged by shifts towards Open Science.

We also propose how ECRs can act as grassroots changemakers within the context of academic precarity. We identify ways in which Open Science can benefit from feminist epistemology and end with six practical recommendations for feminist ECRs who wish to engage with Open Science practices in their own research.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/f9m47

Entrepôts de données de recherche : mesurer l’impact de l’Open Science à l’aune de la consultation des jeux de données déposés

Auteur/Author  : Violaine Rebouillat

Les décennies 2000 et 2010 ont vu se développer un nombre croissant de e-infrastructures de recherche, rendant plus aisés le partage et l’accès aux données scientifiques. Cette tendance s’est vue renforcée par l’essor de politiques d’ouverture des données, lesquelles ont donné lieu à une multiplication de réservoirs de données – aussi appelés « entrepôts de données ». Quantifier et qualifier l’utilisation des données rendues publiques constitue un élément essentiel pour évaluer l’impact des politiques d’ouverture des données.

Dans cet article, nous questionnons l’utilisation des données déposées dans les entrepôts. Dans quelle mesure ces données sont-elles consultées et téléchargées ?

L’article présente les premiers résultats d’une enquête quantitative auprès de 20 entrepôts. Il esquisse deux tendances, qui restent à ce stade propres à l’échantillon étudié, à savoir : (1) l’augmentation globale du nombre de consultations, de téléchargements et de données disponibles dans les entrepôts sur la période étudiée (2015-2020), et (2) la concentration des téléchargements sur une proportion relativement faible des données de l’entrepôt (de l’ordre de 10% à 30%).

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02928817/

Do researchers use open research data? Exploring the relationships between usage trends and metadata quality across scientific disciplines from the Figshare case

Authors : Alfonso Quarati, Juliana E Raffaghelli

Open research data (ORD) have been considered a driver of scientific transparency. However, data friction, as the phenomenon of data underutilisation for several causes, has also been pointed out.

A factor often called into question for ORD low usage is the quality of the ORD and associated metadata. This work aims to illustrate the use of ORD, published by the Figshare scientific repository, concerning their scientific discipline, their type and compared with the quality of their metadata.

Considering all the Figshare resources and carrying out a programmatic quality assessment of their metadata, our analysis highlighted two aspects. First, irrespective of the scientific domain considered, most ORD are under-used, but with exceptional cases which concentrate most researchers’ attention.

Second, there was no evidence that the use of ORD is associated with good metadata publishing practices. These two findings opened to a reflection about the potential causes of such data friction.

URL : Do researchers use open research data? Exploring the relationships between usage trends and metadata quality across scientific disciplines from the Figshare case

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551520961048