Institutional and individual factors affecting scientists' data-sharing behaviors: A multilevel analysis

The objective of this research was to investigate the institutional and individual factors that influence scientists’ data sharing behaviors across different scientific disciplines. Two theoretical perspectives, institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, were employed in developing a research model that showed the complementary nature of the institutional and individual factors influencing scientists’ data * Corresponding Author sharing behaviors. This research used a survey method to examine to what extent those institutional and individual factors influence scientists’ data sharing behaviors in a range of scientific disciplines. A national survey (with 1,317 scientists in 43 disciplines) showed that regulative pressure by journals; normative pressure at a discipline level; and perceived career benefit and scholarly altruism at an individual level had significant positive relationships with data sharing behaviors; and that perceived effort had a significant negative relationship. Regulative pressure by funding agencies and the availability of data repositories at a discipline level and perceived career risk at an individual level were not found to have any significant relationships with data sharing behaviors.