Vast majority of Chinese scientists willing to share data: survey

A white paper has revealed that the Chinese scientific research community displayed a high degree of acceptance and support for open science, with 78 percent of respondents in favor of making the disclosure of research data a common practice.

The survey was recently jointly published by the Computer Network Information Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Springer Nature, Digital Science and Figshare. The white paper is the first of its kind in China.

Chinese respondents tend to believe that data sharing will benefit collaboration, help validate findings, avoid repetitive work and supplement existing data.

A total of 642 valid questionnaire responses were received from the Chinese scientific research community, with 65 percent of these respondents agreeing that China has given strong support for the open sharing of research data, while nearly three quarters of global respondents complained that they lacked the support required to share data, according to the white paper.

"The openness, sharing and application of scientific data will produce new knowledge for the scientific community," said Chen Runsheng, a researcher from the Institute of Biophysics under the CAS.