Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs
Over the past decade, research has made rapid progress in the collection and analysis of digital trace data. However, when it comes to sharing data, researchers still face major barriers that often limit or prevent the reproducibility of research results and the reuse of data. Against this backdrop,...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251325211 |
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| _version_ | 1850058618145079296 |
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| author | Jan Schwalbach Reiner Mauer |
| author_facet | Jan Schwalbach Reiner Mauer |
| author_sort | Jan Schwalbach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over the past decade, research has made rapid progress in the collection and analysis of digital trace data. However, when it comes to sharing data, researchers still face major barriers that often limit or prevent the reproducibility of research results and the reuse of data. Against this backdrop, we identify three broader categories of user challenges, namely researchers’ capacities & incentives, legal & ethical challenges, and technical hurdles. We describe in detail the problems researchers face in each category and why these often prevent researchers from sharing data, thus limiting both the reproducibility of research outputs and data reuse in other research projects. We conclude each category with specific needs of researchers for sharing digital trace data and making it reusable for others. These are intended to provide researchers as well as research institutes and repositories with approaches to improve the situation of data sharing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2b2ab1e7af0f4653843c8df8274acee9 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-2b2ab1e7af0f4653843c8df8274acee92025-08-20T02:51:06ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172025-03-011210.1177/20539517251325211Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needsJan SchwalbachReiner MauerOver the past decade, research has made rapid progress in the collection and analysis of digital trace data. However, when it comes to sharing data, researchers still face major barriers that often limit or prevent the reproducibility of research results and the reuse of data. Against this backdrop, we identify three broader categories of user challenges, namely researchers’ capacities & incentives, legal & ethical challenges, and technical hurdles. We describe in detail the problems researchers face in each category and why these often prevent researchers from sharing data, thus limiting both the reproducibility of research outputs and data reuse in other research projects. We conclude each category with specific needs of researchers for sharing digital trace data and making it reusable for others. These are intended to provide researchers as well as research institutes and repositories with approaches to improve the situation of data sharing.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251325211 |
| spellingShingle | Jan Schwalbach Reiner Mauer Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs Big Data & Society |
| title | Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs |
| title_full | Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs |
| title_fullStr | Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs |
| title_short | Sharing digital trace data: Researchers’ challenges and needs |
| title_sort | sharing digital trace data researchers challenges and needs |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251325211 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT janschwalbach sharingdigitaltracedataresearcherschallengesandneeds AT reinermauer sharingdigitaltracedataresearcherschallengesandneeds |