Why don't we share data and code? Perceived barriers and benefits to public archiving practices

Dylan G E Gomes; Patrice Pottier; Robert Crystal-Ornelas; Emma J Hudgins; Vivienne Foroughirad; Luna L Sánchez-Reyes; Rachel Turba; Paula Andrea Martinez; David Moreau; Michael G Bertram; Cooper A Smout; Kaitlyn M Gaynor

doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.1113

Why don't we share data and code? Perceived barriers and benefits to public archiving practices

Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Nov 30;289(1987):20221113. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1113. Epub 2022 Nov 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ NRC Research Associate, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA 98112, USA.
² Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Newport, OR 97365, USA.
³ Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
⁴ Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, K1S 5B6.
⁶ Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
⁷ School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, 95343 USA.
⁸ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7239, USA.
⁹ Australian Research Data Commons, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
¹¹ Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, SE-907 36, Sweden.
¹² Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education (IGDORE), Brisbane 4001, Australia.
¹³ Departments of Zoology and Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, BC V6T 1Z4.
¹⁴ National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA.

Abstract

The biological sciences community is increasingly recognizing the value of open, reproducible and transparent research practices for science and society at large. Despite this recognition, many researchers fail to share their data and code publicly. This pattern may arise from knowledge barriers about how to archive data and code, concerns about its reuse, and misaligned career incentives. Here, we define, categorize and discuss barriers to data and code sharing that are relevant to many research fields. We explore how real and perceived barriers might be overcome or reframed in the light of the benefits relative to costs. By elucidating these barriers and the contexts in which they arise, we can take steps to mitigate them and align our actions with the goals of open science, both as individual scientists and as a scientific community.

Keywords: code reuse‌; data reuse; data science; open science; reproducibility; transparency.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Biological Science Disciplines*
Information Dissemination
Motivation