The STM Association’s Humanities-focused Sub-Group has run a survey to establish current practice and potential challenges in humanities data sharing. The findings are being used to create resources and guidance to assist authors in managing and sharing research data effectively.
About the survey
The survey was designed to get first-hand input from humanities researchers on a range of topics around collecting, managing, sharing, publishing and even talking about data. It was designed to be fairly brief (less than 10 minutes to complete), and flexible to allow respondents to tell us about their own thoughts or practices as appropriate.
We were looking for respondents from all humanities subject areas covering a wide range of disciplines and data types. While it may not be possible to draw one solution that works for all data types, there is no doubt that resources and support can be improved to provide clearer expectations and guidance for humanities researchers on how their data should be shared, linked and cited in line with their publications.
As publishers, we are committed to supporting and guiding researchers in the handling and sharing of their data and hope to create a set of transparent, industry-led resources to help authors understand and engage with data policies and the data itself.