Survey on data management in radiation protection research

TL;DR

This survey examines data sharing practices in radiation protection research, revealing low awareness of existing platforms and highlighting barriers like competitiveness concerns and lack of training, emphasizing the need for education and infrastructure improvement.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive assessment of current data sharing practices, barriers, and awareness levels in radiation protection research, informing future strategies.

Findings

Low awareness of existing data sharing platforms

Concerns about competitiveness and reputation hinder sharing

Need for education and training in data management

Abstract

The importance of datasharing is of increasing concern to funding bodies and institutions. With some prescience, the radiobiology community has established data sharing infrastructures over the last two decades, including STORE; however, the utilisation of these databases is disappointing. The aim of the present study was to identify the current state of datasharing amongst researchers in radiation protection, and to identify barriers to effective sharing. An electronic survey was prepared, including questions on post-publication data provision, institutional, funding agency, and journal policies, awareness of datasharing infrastructures, attitudinal barriers, and technical support. The survey was sent to the members of a mailing list maintained by the EC funded CONCERT project. Responses identified that the radiation protection community shared similar concerns to other groups canvassed in earlier studies; the perceived negative impact of datasharing on competitiveness, career development and reputation, along with concern about the costs of data management. More surprising was the lack of awareness of existing datasharing platforms. We find that there is a clear need for education and training in data management and for a significant programme of improving awareness of Open Data issues.