But What Do Participants Want? Comment on the "Data Sharing in Psychology" Special Section (2018)

This commentary addresses a recent special section on data sharing (i.e., open data) in the February-March 2018 American Psychologist. In 4 articles, the authors outline how open data can positively impact psychology and provide guidelines for adopting open data practices, which we believe is to be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American psychologist 2019-02, Vol.74 (2), p.245-247
Main Authors: Cummings, Jorden A, Day, T. Eugene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comprehension
Data Sharing
Humans
Information Dissemination
Information sharing
Informed Consent
Open Data
Policy Making
Professional Ethics
Psychology
Researchers
Stakeholder
United States
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Summary:This commentary addresses a recent special section on data sharing (i.e., open data) in the February-March 2018 American Psychologist. In 4 articles, the authors outline how open data can positively impact psychology and provide guidelines for adopting open data practices, which we believe is to be commended. However, this special issue has not acknowledged a crucial concern in the open data debate: the views and desires of participants. Participants are the backbone of psychological research and an important stakeholder in open data issues. We review research that has studied participants' opinions of open data and outline concerns regarding open data raised by some groups of participants. We conclude with recommendations, including a call to psychological researchers to move beyond opinion and instead to empirically examine the impact of open data. We believe psychology is a discipline uniquely poised to execute these recommendations and guide researchers' understandings of how to appropriately and ethically implement open data practices across multiple disciplines.
ISSN:0003-066X
1935-990X
DOI:10.1037/amp0000408