Data Sharing: Academic Libraries and the Scholarly Enterprise

Technological advances have raised expectations for data sharing; and financial exigencies have brought the issue into sharper focus, especially as grant-funding institutions are beginning to require shared access to research results and the data that support them. These data are increasingly linked to publications and related resources, thereby making sharing inexorably linked to scholarship itself. In this study, we offer a descriptive analysis of the state of data sharing in sociology as compared with practices among a representative sample of other academic disciplines. We also consider the implications for the research community of trends in data sharing and data access. Finally, we address the unique role of academic librarians as partners in support of disciplinary researchers, teachers, students, and other data users.