Alberto Pepe edited survey results.tex  almost 10 years ago

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In the second part of the survey, researchers were asked to respond to two questions, one about data use practices and the other about data sharing practices (Full questions listed in \ref{sec:surveyquestions}). Results from these survey questions are summarized in tabular format in Figures \ref{fig:fig4} and \ref{fig:fig5}. Note that because respondents could choose more than one sharing method, the percentages in the last column of these figures are of \textit{responses}, not of \textit{respondents}. Figure \ref{fig:fig4} shows how respondents have used in their research data they have learned about reading a journal article. The most common method for researchers to obtain data from journal articles is the rather antiquated technique of manually copying and pasting (or transcribing) it from one table into another. More automated methods (such as downloading the data from an archive where it is made available or from the journal site as an e-table of ASCII data) are the second most popular techniques. Other techniques used by over half of the respondents include contacting the paper author asking directly for the data and manually extrapolating the data from a plot or graph.   Results from Figure \ref{fig:fig5} show respondents' data sharing practices. The vast majority of respondents indicated that they have emailed the data to a colleague upon request. Over half of the respondents has have  used a ftp site or a personal website to store the data and make it publicly available. One third of the respondents have used a project-based website. The number of respondents who have used the option of an institutional archive is much lower (only about 1 in 10 respondents). Although a much rarer response, there are however some respondents who have opted in some cases not to share their data. The most common reasons for not sharing data are that: it is too much effort; the dataset is too large in size; or due to the perception that no one will want it.