Supporting successful data sharing practices in earthquake engineering
ISSN: 0737-8831
Article publication date: 10 September 2019
Issue publication date: 25 October 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Prior studies identified a need for further comparison of data-sharing practices across different disciplines and communities. Toward addressing this need, the purpose of this paper is to examine the data-sharing practices of the earthquake engineering (EE) community, which could help inform data-sharing policies in EE and provide different stakeholders of the EE community with suggestions regarding data management and curation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with 16 EE researchers to gain an understanding of which data might be shared, with whom, under what conditions and why; and their perceptions of data ownership.
Findings
This study identified 29 data-sharing factors categorized into five groups. Requirements from funding agencies and academic genealogy were frequent impacts on EE researchers’ data-sharing practices. EE researchers were uncertain of data ownership and their perceptions varied.
Originality/value
Based on the findings, this study provides funding agencies, research institutions, data repositories and other stakeholders of the EE community with suggestions, such as allowing researchers to adjust the timeframe they can withhold data based on project size and the amount of experimental data generated; expanding the types and states of data required to share; defining data ownership in grant requirements; integrating data sharing and curation into curriculum; and collaborating with library and information schools for curriculum development.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express gratitude to Dr Besiki Stvilia, Dr Roberta Brody, and Dr Kwong-Bor Ng for their helpful suggestions and to the reviewers for useful feedback.
Citation
Wu, S. and Worrall, A. (2019), "Supporting successful data sharing practices in earthquake engineering", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 764-780. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-03-2019-0058
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited