TY - JOUR

T1 - “We Share All Data with Each Other”: Data-Sharing in Peer-to-Peer Relationships

AU - Barlösius, Eva

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the German Science Foundation [grant number: 347305329], and the Leibniz Center of Science and Society of the Leibniz Universität Hannover. Funding Information: The first project has been financed by the Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS); the second, by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Although the topic of data-sharing has boomed in the past few years, practices of datasharing have attracted only scant attention within working groups and scientific cooperation (peer-to-peer data-sharing). To understand these practices, the author draws on Max Weber’s concept of social relationship, conceptualizing data-sharing as social action that takes place within a social relationship. The empirical material consists of interviews with 34 researchers representing five disciplines—linguistics, biology, psychology, computer sciences, and neurosciences. The analysis identifies three social forms of data-sharing in peer-to-peer relationships: (a) closed communal sharing, which is based on a feeling of belonging together; (b) closed associative sharing, in which the participants act on the basis of an agreement; and (c) open associative sharing, which is oriented to “institutional imperatives” (Merton) and to formal regulations. The study shows that far more data-sharing is occurring in scientific practice than seems to be apparent from a concept of open data alone. If the main goal of open-data policy programs is to encourage researchers to increase access to their data, it could be instructive to study the three forms of data-sharing to improve the understanding of why and how scientists make their data accessible to other researchers.

AB - Although the topic of data-sharing has boomed in the past few years, practices of datasharing have attracted only scant attention within working groups and scientific cooperation (peer-to-peer data-sharing). To understand these practices, the author draws on Max Weber’s concept of social relationship, conceptualizing data-sharing as social action that takes place within a social relationship. The empirical material consists of interviews with 34 researchers representing five disciplines—linguistics, biology, psychology, computer sciences, and neurosciences. The analysis identifies three social forms of data-sharing in peer-to-peer relationships: (a) closed communal sharing, which is based on a feeling of belonging together; (b) closed associative sharing, in which the participants act on the basis of an agreement; and (c) open associative sharing, which is oriented to “institutional imperatives” (Merton) and to formal regulations. The study shows that far more data-sharing is occurring in scientific practice than seems to be apparent from a concept of open data alone. If the main goal of open-data policy programs is to encourage researchers to increase access to their data, it could be instructive to study the three forms of data-sharing to improve the understanding of why and how scientists make their data accessible to other researchers.

KW - Data-sharing

KW - Open data

KW - Collaboration

KW - Community

KW - Working Group

KW - Social Relationship

KW - Social relationship

KW - Working group

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147100358&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11024-023-09487-y

DO - 10.1007/s11024-023-09487-y

M3 - Article

VL - 61

SP - 243

EP - 263

JO - Minerva

JF - Minerva

SN - 0026-4695

IS - 2

ER -