“The corona crisis has once again underlined the importance of open science.” says Anneke Zuiderwijk, associate professor of Open Data at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. “Thanks to data sharing between parties from science and the medical industry, corona vaccines could be developed in a relatively short period of time.” Yet of all scientific data collected worldwide, only a fraction is currently publicly available. According to the researcher, this has several causes. “One of the factors that comes into play is time. Properly structuring and making data available requires a lot of work. While the workload for researchers is already high. In addition, unlike for publications, researchers are hardly rewarded for sharing datasets. So there is no incentive. In addition, some researchers fear that data will be misinterpreted or that others will run off with it before the research or article is completed.”
Practice what you preach
Zuiderwijk recognizes the struggle of scientists. “I was also hesitant to share my data during my PhD research. My biggest fear was misinterpretation of my data sets. At the same time, I thought: more transparency is extremely important. For example, it allows for more collaboration between scientists and more accurate documentation. This in turn leads to better quality research. Moreover, I do research into open science myself, so I also have to set a good example. Practice what you preach. Because I had stored all the data from my research in a well-structured way, it took relatively little effort to make it public. So in the end I decided to publish all the data. After that first time it got easier and easier. So you have to cross a hurdle.”
Barriers and incentives
One of the challenges in her research is to find out which factors ensure that a researcher does or does not share his or her data. Zuiderwijk: “It may not be customary for a country or university to make data public, but there may also be personal motives behind it. For example, trust in others. Researchers are often reluctant, especially when a lot of personal data has been processed in the research. Then the barriers outweigh the benefits. Conversely, certain factors can actually stimulate public data sharing. For example, demands from the financier or a reward from the university, such as an amount that you can spend annually on a conference. I want to find out at what level which barriers and incentives play a role in open science and to what extent countries, universities and research disciplines differ in this respect.”
Tools for better data sharing
The insights that Zuiderwijk gains form the basis for solutions for making data more available and usable. For her PhD research, for example, she designed – together with an international consortium – an infrastructure and website on which researchers can process their data faster and better. She is currently investigating how universities can improve their data infrastructure. “Universities often work with different portals and standards for processing data sets. This makes it difficult for researchers to use and combine data from other knowledge institutions. Also, researchers are not always sufficiently supported by their university when making data public.”
Data stewards
Zuiderwijk examines which infrastructural and institutional instruments contribute to improving the data infrastructure. In doing so, she develops theory for specific needs and contexts. “Because open science is not yet taken for granted at every university, you have to look at what fits where. For example, when data sharing is still in its infancy somewhere, it is better to start with a generic educational arrangement so that researchers can develop general skills. If you are a bit further along – such as TU Delft, which has invested heavily in open science over the past ten years – you can look more closely at instruments for individual support, such as data stewards. They give advice on which data you should or should not make available, what you should pay attention to and how you can best present your data. They do this with information and training, but also with individual guidance. At TU Delft, each faculty has its own data steward.”
Using social value
In addition to doing research, Zuiderwijk offers online free courses (MOOCs) about open science. She shows, among other things, the benefits of data sharing for researchers themselves. “For example, that you will report more neatly during your research. Or that with open access to data you ensure that your articles are easier to find and that you show that your data is reliable. But the most important incentive for sharing data is the contribution you can make to solving social issues. Think of the development of corona vaccines. Such a success story is enormously inspiring. In the coming years I hope to achieve a scientific breakthrough for open science with my research, so that we can all make even better use of the social value.”