Über die Grenzen der Offenheit in der Wissenschaft – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit bei der Bereitstellung und Nachnutzung von Forschungsdaten

Open research data contribute to scientific progress. They allow using old data for new questions and re-analyzing research results. It is hardly surprising that political decision makers, research funders, journals and researchers themselves increasingly demand open access to research. However, researchers themselves practice open access to data only in moderation. In this article we focus on researchers’ lacking willingness to make their data available and to reuse secondary data. We conclude that there are not enough incentives for researchers to make their data available. The reuse, on the other hand, often fails because of lacking data documentation. The key to foster academic data sharing is an adequate formal recognition for sharing. Data management has to become part of the university curriculum of data-intensive disciplines.