Research data sharing: Practices and perceptions of researchers at the selected universities in Tanzania

Abstract

Despite the presence of multiple platforms for research data sharing such as data repositories, journal systems, social media, and portable devices, the practice of data sharing has not well been deployed in many universities in Africa including Tanzania. Therefore, this study investigated research data sharing at the selected universities in Tanzania. Specifically, the study sought to explore the research data sharing practices as well as determine the researchers’ perceptions of research data sharing. This study used a cross-section survey design, where both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. A sample size of 200 was drawn from a population of 1846 of the universities under study. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from researchers while interviews were used to collect data from the university leaders. The findings indicate that researchers were practicing research data sharing in the surveyed institutions at different levels. The study has also revealed that researchers were mostly practicing sharing of research data within their research groups. Further, it was found that most of the respondents were willing to use others’ research data compared to their data sets being used by others. Moreover, the academic backgrounds of the researchers were significantly important in research data-sharing practices. The study also found that researchers perceived that sharing of research data could easily be done if researchers would benefit from sharing the research data or if researchers would be forced to share their research data. The study concludes that, researchers at the surveyed institutions have been practicing research data sharing although at the minimum level. The study recommends the establishment of research data-sharing national framework that can guide all entities and activities related to research data sharing.