Data Sharing from the Perspective of Faculty in Korea

Abstract

This study investigated the factors associated with Korean professors' intentions to openly share data. As Korea does not have an institutional or regulatory framework governing data sharing, understanding the motivations and/or concerns of a Korean faculty might not only provide policy guidance for data-sharing practices in Korea but also help academic libraries of this country develop data management services valuable for researchers. In particular, survey responses from 190 professors and follow-up interviews with eleven faculty members were analyzed and revealed that professors who were more willing to openly share data tended to agree with data reuse conditioned on easy access to others' data, to have altruistic reasons for data sharing and to be uncertain about repositories and the demand for their data. Professors who were less willing to make data publicly available tended to fear exploitation and to be interested in exchanging data for control of access to such data, for approval of the dissemination of results based on such data, and for co-authorship and collaboration opportunities. The study suggested that policies might be designed to incentivize data sharing by including supporting data citation, allowing data providers to control access to data, and considering ethical issues and various co-authorship practices. It also discussed implications of the findings for academic librarians. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.