Single-Investigator Culture, Accidental Data Contamination, and Geopolitics of Data Ownership: Three Challenges of Data Sharing in Big Data Science, Cyberinfrastructure, and Cooperative Scientific Work

While the vision of data sharing for big data science, cyberinfrastructure, and cooperative scientific work is exciting, the practice is full of challenges. Based on qualitative methods guided by grounded theory and 70 interviews, three such challenges are presented in this paper. They are single-investigator culture in traditional academic, accidental data contamination, and geopolitics of data ownership. The analysis suggests that in order for data sharing to become an enduring practice, the urgency of the scientific problems needs to become more pressing, in order to put pressure on academic systems, researchers, and governments to shift their current practices towards the vision of community data sharing.