“The State of Open Data 2023” Report (8th Annual) Released, Over 6000 Researchers Worldwide Surveyed

From a Digital Science, Figshare and Springer Nature Announcement:

In the eighth annual The State of Open Data report released today, almost three quarters of surveyed researchers overwhelmingly said they are still not getting the support they need to share their data openly. Such data highlights the increased need for greater community collaboration and tools to support researchers in the move to sustainable open science practices.

For the remaining 23% of respondents who had sought and received support with data sharing, the support primarily came from internal sources (colleague/supervisor – 61%), followed by institutional libraries (31%), research office / in-house institutional expertise (26%), publishers (21%) and funders (17%).

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Over 6000 researchers responded globally, with the highest proportion of responses from India (12%), China (11%) and the United States (9%). For the first time, this year we asked respondents about their experiences of using artificial intelligence (AI) to collect and share data. At a time when almost three-quarters of researchers surveyed say they have never received any support with making their data openly available, looking at the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for supporting the data-sharing process and benchmarking current attitudes may enable stakeholders across the research ecosystem to consider the future role that AI could play in the research process. 

Other key findings from this year’s report show that:

• 60% of respondents believe that they receive too little credit for sharing their data – credit remains an ongoing concern for researchers and one that has reoccurred across The State of Open Data reports for the past 8 years – hindering the promotion of open science and sustainable data sharing practices by undermining incentives, trust, and collaboration;
• We need a more nuanced global approach to research data management – one size does not fit all. For example, there was a general consensus in favor of a national mandate for open research data (64%), with respondents from India and Germany displaying higher levels of support (both 71%) compared to other countries.
• Career stage is not a significant factor in open data awareness or support levels – more inclusive outreach is needed when organizing discussions, forums and panels in the open research space.
• AI awareness has not yet been translated into action – while almost half of respondents were aware of generative AI tools for data collection, processing, and metadata creation, most are not yet using them.

Report Resources

• Full Text Report
• News Release
• Report Web Site, Summaries, and Additional Resources

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Open Access, Reports, Springer Nature