Research data management: An evaluation of researchers involved in TÜBİTAK projects

Research data sharing is becoming increasingly important because of its verifiability, accountability, visibility, validity, efficiency, reproducibility, and resource-saving features. Many institutions and organizations revise their policy documents to cover research data management and data sharing due to the economic and public benefit it provides. Research data sharing and research data management are two important complementary issues. Determining the current situation of researchers in this regard contributes to the planning and development of services on the subject. This study aimed to determine the research data management and sharing practices, behaviours and attitudes of researchers who are involved in research projects carried out with the support of TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). 408 researchers from 73 different universities participated in the study. Within this study, a questionnaire consisting of 34 questions was conducted in order to determine the current situation of the researchers. According to the findings, researchers do not work with big data, generally do not prepare a data management plan, store their data mostly on personal computers and do not prepare their data for long-term protection. It is seen that researchers share their data, however the level of sharing their data publicly is low. Additionally, researchers need training in the management of research data, and training in preparing a data management plan is most needed. Policies to be prepared at the national and institutional level are important for the research data management and sharing. In this regard, the roles that the relevant persons, institutions, and organizations should undertake in order to make progress in Turkey were presented within the scope of this study.