Poster: Testing new solutions to incentivize best practice in data sharing and promote data reuse

Poster presented at the 2023 Metascience conference. 

Abstract:

Sharing research data in repositories is considered best practice as it supports the FAIR principles but most researchers share data by other methods. To incentivise repository use the scientific publisher PLOS introduced 2 solutions: Dryad repository integration with our manuscript submission system and an "Accessible Data" icon (badge) added to articles that link to data in a repository. 

Dryad integration use was below expectations (~2% of authors). Common reasons for not using it were lack of awareness, data already uploaded elsewhere, concerns about others using the data and lack of time. ~3500 articles received the Accessible Data icon, which was clicked by readers more than 12,000 times within the first 9 months of the experiment. Despite moderately high awareness (69%), those aware of the feature weren’t more likely to share data in a repository, although some felt this feature made shared data more prominent and would help normalize the practice. 

Supporting data:10.6084/m9.figshare.22762469