A dataset describing data discovery and reuse practices in research

Abstract

This paper presents a dataset produced from the largest known survey examining how researchers and support professionals discover, make sense of and reuse secondary research data. 1677 respondents in 105 countries representing a variety of disciplinary domains, professional roles and stages in their academic careers completed the survey. The results represent the data needs, sources and strategies used to locate data, and the criteria employed in data evaluation of these respondents. The data detailed in this paper have the potential to be reused to inform the development of data discovery systems, data repositories, training activities and policies for a variety of general and specific user communities.