A study of compliance with data-sharing requests by Social Science researchers

This paper examines responses to data-sharing requests from authors in the Social Sciences. Compliance with requests for data-sharing in Medical Sciences has been reported to be low. The study extends the scholarship by assessing compliance with similar requests in the Social Sciences.

Four hundred empirical study authors from 400 Q1 Scopus-indexed Journals across eight prominent fields of the Social Sciences were requested to share the research data. Only those authors were contacted who had stated that data would be made available on request, or those who had not explicitly denied data-sharing.

Sixty-seven authors responded, of whom 15 (4%) provided data, while 52 declined to share data on grounds such as privacy concerns. The response rate of 4% was far lower than the average of 12% reported in Medical Sciences.

While policy encourages data-sharing, practice has yet to catch up. Existing literature indicates various reasons for not sharing research data. These include unavailability, privacy concerns, ethical concerns, lack of publisher compulsion, and others. It is important to address the issue of authors not responding to requests despite a promise. Policymakers also need to examine this issue to identify ways to improve data-sharing and promote open science.