Data from: Willing or unwilling to share primary biodiversity data: results and implications of an international survey

Biodiversity science and conservation increasingly depend on the sharing and integration of large amounts of data, but many researchers resist sharing their primary biodiversity data. We recently conducted an international survey to ascertain the attitudes, experiences, and expectations regarding biodiversity data sharing and archiving of researchers. The results show that whereas most respondents are willing to share paper-related biodiversity data, more than sixty percent of respondents are unwilling to share primary data before publishing. Results indicate an underdeveloped culture of data sharing and several major technological and operational barriers. A major concern for researchers is appropriate benefits from data sharing. Most respondents would accept data archiving policies of journals. Researchers also express concerns about how to easily and efficiently deal with data and data quality in public databases. Expectations for biodiversity databases include standardization of data format, user-friendly data submission tools, formats for different types of data and coordination among databases. The survey results provide suggestions for improving data sharing and archiving by individual scientists, organizations, journals, and databases.

生物多样性科学与保护工作对海量数据的共享与整合依赖程度日益加深，但诸多研究人员仍不愿共享其原始生物多样性数据。我们近期开展了一项国际调研，旨在了解研究人员在生物多样性数据共享与归档方面的态度、经验与预期。调研结果显示，尽管多数受访者愿意共享与论文相关的生物多样性数据，但超六成受访者不愿在论文发表前共享原始数据。结果表明，当前数据共享文化尚不成熟，且存在多项主要的技术与操作壁垒。研究人员的一大核心关切是如何从数据共享中获取合理收益。多数受访者认可期刊的数据归档政策。此外，研究人员还对如何便捷高效地处理公共数据库中的数据及保障数据质量问题表示担忧。对生物多样性数据库的预期诉求包括：数据格式标准化、易用的数据提交工具、适配不同类型数据的格式标准，以及数据库间的协同联动。本次调研结果可为科研人员个人、组织机构、期刊及数据库方优化数据共享与归档工作提供参考依据。