Section for Translational Medical Ethics, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Section for Translational Medical Ethics/Department of Medical Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 7;17(9):e0273259. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273259. eCollection 2022.
Data Sharing is widely recognised as crucial for accelerating scientific research and improving its quality. However, data sharing is still not a common practice. Funding agencies tend to facilitate the sharing of research data by both providing incentives and requiring data sharing as part of their policies and conditions for awarding grants. The goal of our article is to answer the following question: What challenges do international funding agencies see when it comes to their own efforts to foster and implement data sharing through their policies?
We conducted a series of sixteen guideline-based expert interviews with representatives of leading international funding agencies. As contact persons for open science at their respective agencies, they offered their perspectives and experiences concerning their organisations' data sharing policies. We performed a qualitative content analysis of the interviews and categorised the challenges perceived by funding agencies.
We identify and illustrate six challenges surrounding data sharing policies as perceived by leading funding agencies: The design of clear policies, monitoring of compliance, sanctions for non-compliance, incentives, support, and limitations for funders' own capabilities. However, our interviews also show how funders approach potential solutions to overcome these challenges, for example by coordinating with other agencies or adjusting grant evaluation metrics to incentivise data sharing.
Our interviews point to existing flaws in funders' data sharing policies, such as a lack of clarity, a lack of monitoring of funded researchers' data sharing behaviour, and a lack of incentives. A number of agencies could suggest potential solutions but often struggle with the overall complexity of data sharing and the implementation of these measures. Funders cannot solve each challenge by themselves, but they can play an active role and lead joint efforts towards a culture of data sharing.
数据共享被广泛认为对于加速科学研究和提高其质量至关重要。然而，数据共享仍然不是一种常见的做法。资助机构倾向于通过提供激励措施并要求将数据共享作为其政策和授予资助的条件的一部分来促进研究数据的共享。我们文章的目的是回答以下问题：国际资助机构在努力通过其政策来促进和实施数据共享方面，遇到了哪些挑战？
我们对来自领先的国际资助机构的 16 位指南为基础的专家进行了一系列访谈。作为各自机构开放科学的联系人，他们提供了有关其组织数据共享政策的观点和经验。我们对访谈进行了定性内容分析，并对资助机构所认为的挑战进行了分类。
我们确定并说明了主要资助机构所认为的六个围绕数据共享政策的挑战：明确政策的设计、对合规性的监测、对不合规的制裁、激励措施、支持以及资助者自身能力的限制。然而，我们的访谈还表明，资助者如何接近潜在的解决方案来克服这些挑战，例如通过与其他机构协调或调整资助评估指标以激励数据共享。
我们的访谈指出了资助者数据共享政策中存在的一些缺陷，例如缺乏明确性、缺乏对受资助研究人员数据共享行为的监测以及缺乏激励措施。一些机构可以提出潜在的解决方案，但往往受到数据共享的整体复杂性和这些措施的实施的限制。资助者不能单独解决每个挑战，但可以发挥积极作用，引领共同努力，建立数据共享文化。
