Many researchers are justifiably concerned about sensitivity of their data and think that the best solution is simply not to share any data. Wherever possible, researchers should seek to share as much data, as openly as possible, within legal and ethical bounds. There are a few reasons:
- Studies have shown that research participants do have some concerns about how their data might be distributed or reused, and how identifiable those data may be, but they also support dissemination of data in some form in order to advance research and applied solutions (e.g., Mello et al., 2020; Mozersky et al., 2020; VandeVusse et al., 2022).
- Publishing data, at whatever level of openness, in a data repository will ensure long-term preservation. If data are not shared in any form (i.e. only stored locally or on an individual's cloud storage), the likelihood that it can be come damaged, lost, or inaccessible for various reasons (e.g., retirement, changing institutions) is high (e.g., Vines et al., 2014; Tedersoo et al., 2021). Lost data incur severe costs not only for the researcher(s) who collected them but also any participants who were involved in the study.
- If the researcher(s) who collected the data are the sole access point for the data, this can create a lot of work for them (e.g., vetting requests). As there are many platforms and mechanisms that can help manage data access and reuse restrictions, researchers should seek to take advantage of these by publishing their data in some form.
