For ten years, The State of Open Data has surveyed and reported on researchers’ experiences of – and attitudes towards – data sharing. The report has become a key reference point for research stakeholders seeking to understand the open data landscape and to support meaningful change.
In 2025, we mark the 10th anniversary with , which looks back at how researcher attitudes, behaviours, and policies around open data have evolved over the past decade—and what still needs to change.
The State of Open Data: A Decade of Progress and Challenges, is a special edition that looks back across ten years of findings.
This year’s report highlights where real progress has been made, where momentum has stalled, and which new pressures and opportunities are reshaping the future. What began as a push for openness through advocacy and declarations on open access, has evolved into widespread adoption, and in some countries, formal mandates, driving a global shift towards openness.
Looking ahead, the challenge is not convincing researchers of the value of open data - it is ensuring that sharing and reuse are supported, incentivised, and embedded into everyday research culture. The next decade must focus on operationalising these principles so that openness is not an extra burden but the default, efficient, and most beneficial path for research and society.
A long-term focus on Chinese scholar's attitudes towards open data, their sharing practice, and the policy environment.
A partner report by the Computer Network Information Centre (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Science Data Bank.
Join us during Love Data Week for a live webinar as we:
Plus, take part in a dedicated Q&A session to engage directly with experts and help shape priorities for the decade ahead.
Anonymised raw data and questionnaire for the 2025 State of Open Data survey developed by ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and Digital Science.
The 2024 special report ‘Bridging policy and practice in data sharing’ took an in-depth look into what drives good data sharing practices globally. Direct author-sharing practices were analysed at a funder, country and institutional level. The resulting data showed key trends driving successful open sharing and the growth of global adoption, and enabled recommendations to be drawn to help bridge gaps between policy and practice.
Mark Hahnel, Figshare’s founder and VP Open Research at Digital Science, and Graham Smith, Open Data Programme Manager at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, sat down to discuss why this investigation into open research practices is important in building a more equitable research ecosystem.
A long-term focus on Chinese scholar's attitudes towards open data, their sharing practice, and the policy environment.
A partner report by the Computer Network Information Centre (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Science Data Bank.
The 2023 survey showed that the key motivations for researchers to share their data remain similar to previous years, with full citation of research papers or a data citation ranking highly. 89% of respondents also said they make their data available publicly.
Variations in responses from different areas of expertise and geographies highlight a need for a more nuanced approach to research data management support globally. 64% of respondents supported the idea of a national mandate for making research data openly available.
The survey has revealed a recurring concern among researchers: the perception that they don't receive sufficient recognition for openly sharing their data. 60% of respondents said they receive too little credit for sharing their data.
We asked survey respondents to indicate if they were using AI tools for data collection and processing. The most common response was ‘I’m aware of these tools but haven’t considered it.’
This supplementary report that expands upon the results of our years of surveys. "From theory to practice" provides real-life perspectives from various research community members on open research data sharing.
This report looks at data collected from the survey over the past 8 years and takes a deep dive into responses from different countries, demonstrating that global trends don’t always align with national trends.
A partner report by the Computer Network Information Centre (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, looking at Chinese researchers’ attitudes towards and experiences of open data based on the survey.
Our Research Data Community is a growing forum of advocates for the sharing of research data. It is a great place to interact with other researchers, read the latest information on research data and help advance data sharing practices.
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø is committed to supporting researchers in sharing research data and in receiving the credit you deserve. Find out about how we can help you to make sharing your research data faster, easier and more impactful.
