Perceptions towards research data sharing: A qualitative study of Nigerian academics

Abstract

Open science provides transparency to research processes by means of open data as data sharing initiates. The need for data sharing among scholars and researchers was evident, the uptake however is slow due to the benefits and detriments of the practices. This paper explores the perceptions of Nigerian academics towards research data sharing practices. Participants from five universities in Nigeria were purposively sampled. Data were gathered through interviews with 22 participants. Their perception towards data sharing was reflected through their awareness, understanding and familiarity of the practice. Most of the participants perceived that data sharing would add value to their professional reputation and fast-track their research progression, however a few of them perceived data sharing as disquieting. The academics labelled data privacy and cultural orientation to be those risks associated with data sharing. The study provides deeper understanding of data sharing and the opportunity for academics to know diverse insights of data sharing practices that would guide scholars in intensifying a variety of data management services, which then can be personalized to their exclusive needs. Further investigation could be done through quantitative research approach to inform data sharing behavior in a larger scale in order to improve the current practices.

Individual Perspectives on Data Sharing: Human Factors Impacting the Digital Economy

“…Others directly indicated it wasn't the norm for their discipline (e.g. Abdullahi and Noorhidawati, 2020). Among articles addressing data sharing in government organization, a repeating theme was lack of interest or cooperation within the organization.…”

“…When individuals are data users, the benefit of data sharing is more clear (e.g. Abdullahi & Noorhidawati, 2020). The implied quid pro quo of sharing data because you have yourself benefited from others sharing their data taps into basic human psychology.…”

“…Yang and Wu (2020) describe a need for "facilitating conditions", a set of resources and training that are made available, but don't define what these should look like. Some suggest incentives might be financial (Abdullahi & Noorhidawati, 2020), but a survey of food scientists (n=101) found "the most important motivations for publishing research data were … facilitating the reproducibility of the research, increasing the likelihood of citations of the article, and compliance with funding body mandates" (Melero & Navarro-Molina, 2020). Reproducibility as an essential value shows up frequently (e.g.…”

“…Concern about skills and training was a consistent theme in articles focused on government open data in LMI countries (e.g Safarov, 2020;Luthfi, 2020),. thoughAbdullahi and Noorhidawati (2020) specifically noted the absence of concern about technical training and infrastructure in their interviews with researchers. The articles implied that respondents were comparing their resources to their peers in other nations.…”