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3 years ago in Scholarly Communication By Sourabh
Are data sharing mandates from funders and journals actually beneficial, or do they just create more work and risk for researchers, especially in qualitative fields?
My funding agency requires a data management plan and sharing upon publication. My research involves sensitive interviews. While I support transparency in principle, I’m concerned about anonymization, participant consent, and the time required to prepare datasets. Are there tangible rewards that make this effort worthwhile?
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By Payal Homraj Bhagat Answered 3 weeks ago
Having navigated this with sensitive ethnographic data, I can say the mandates push us toward better, more ethical research practice, even if it’s initially more work. The key benefit is increased trust and citations; studies show papers with shared data get cited more. For qualitative work, you don’t share raw interviews. Instead, create rich, anonymized metadata, interview guides, and detailed analytical memos. This demonstrates rigor. The process of preparing data for sharing forces you to organize and document thoroughly, which pays off in your own future work and reduces errors. I’ve also found it opens unexpected collaboration doors. Frame it not as releasing everything, but as showcasing the architecture of your evidence, which strengthens your scholarly profile and contribution.
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