The Status of Data in Academic Research Mark Hahnel 10.6084/m9.figshare.978831.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_Status_of_Data_in_Academic_Research/978831 <p>There are very few, if any, discoveries each year in academia that come about without building on concepts and ideas that have been previously published in academic journals. This is the natural progression of research. However, this is often limited to building on top of conclusions or ideas, as opposed to the actual research itself. Current dissemination of research is largely based on making available pdf-based summaries of key findings, as opposed to the actual research outputs and raw data behind the graphs. In order to track a diverse array of academic outputs, they must persist on the Internet. One way to do this is via the minting of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) by trusted repositories. These managed links overcome the problem of ‘link rot’, which has been shown to occur at c. 10%/year for non-traditional outputs. This article addresses the current problems created by a lack of data sharing in academia. We also look at the incentives structure and potential solutions for improving the quality of academic outputs across all fields of research.</p> <p> </p> 2014-03-31 13:34:09 data openresearch open data research data management Science Policy