What drives and inhibits researchers to share and use open research data? A systematic literature review to analyze factors influencing open research data adoption

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 18;15(9):e0239283. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239283. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Both sharing and using open research data have the revolutionary potentials for forwarding scientific advancement. Although previous research gives insight into researchers' drivers and inhibitors for sharing and using open research data, both these drivers and inhibitors have not yet been integrated via a thematic analysis and a theoretical argument is lacking. This study's purpose is to systematically review the literature on individual researchers' drivers and inhibitors for sharing and using open research data. This study systematically analyzed 32 open data studies (published between 2004 and 2019 inclusively) and elicited drivers plus inhibitors for both open research data sharing and use in eleven categories total that are: 'the researcher's background', 'requirements and formal obligations', 'personal drivers and intrinsic motivations', 'facilitating conditions', 'trust', 'expected performance', 'social influence and affiliation', 'effort', 'the researcher's experience and skills', 'legislation and regulation', and 'data characteristics.' This study extensively discusses these categories, along with argues how such categories and factors are connected using a thematic analysis. Also, this study discusses several opportunities for altogether applying, extending, using, and testing theories in open research data studies. With such discussions, an overview of identified categories and factors can be further applied to examine both researchers' drivers and inhibitors in different research disciplines, such as those with low rates of data sharing and use versus disciplines with high rates of data sharing plus use. What's more, this study serves as a first vital step towards developing effective incentives for both open data sharing and use behavior.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biomedical Research / ethics*
  • Ethics, Research*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Information Dissemination / ethics
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Publications / ethics
  • Research Personnel / ethics*
  • Trust

Grants and funding

The following institutions supported our study: Delft University of Technology (Dr. Anneke Zuiderwijk received salary from this institution), ETH Zurich (Rhythima Shinde MSc. received salary from this institution) and National Taiwan University (Dr. Wei Jeng received salary from this institution). The following grants supported our study: MOST109-2636-H-002-002 and MOST109-3017-F-002-004 (both from Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan) and NTU-109L900204 (from Ministry of Education, Taiwan) (grants received by Dr. Wei Jeng). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.