Implementing a requirement for data availability statements results in many more declarations that data are available on request (topic 8 in Figure \ref{763853}, and also the related topics 4, 9, 10, 12, 14, and 20). This is to be expected.
Topic 19 indicates that data are shared in a repository with a permanent digital object identifier (DOI). This is an ideal standard for those who share their data to aspire to. Topic 19 shows steady growth over 5 years, but strangely without a sharp increase in 2019; that sharp increase is shown in several related topics (topics 1, 2, 3, 15, 17, and 18).
Topic 15 indicates that data are available in genetics databases, and shows steeper growth between 2014 and 2016; a distinct flat period between 2016 and 2018; and then steep growth in 2019. We wonder why this might be.
[add discussion, comparison with what was already published in other studies cited, restricted to those that analysed DASs - conclusions]
It is ironic to write an article about data availability while sharing not the whole data set but a dummy data set (to illustrate how our code works). The data availability statements we analysed were submitted by researchers to Wiley as part of journal articles, some of which we published. We analysed this information to improve our understanding researchers' practices. We'll use what we've learned to improve our products and services so that we can better serve – and even delight – researchers who choose to publish their research with Wiley. That kind of use is, for articles we publish, covered by the license researchers give us to publish their work or, for articles submitted to but not eventually published by Wiley, by our privacy policy. But we did not ask those researchers when they submitted their articles whether we could share data about their data availability statements, and so somewhat ironically we find ourselves unsure about whether we have the right to share our whole data set alongside this article. We chose not to because of this uncertainty. With that in mind, the final and perhaps most important lesson for us from this study is an appreciation for the value of careful study designs and data management plans, created before starting a study. We salute you, open researchers, you're doing amazing things.
Data availability statement
[Dave please could you write this?]
Disclosure of conflicts of interest
All authors are employed by Wiley and benefit from the company's success.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to our colleague Elisha Morris at Wiley for the literature search and analysis we used to write our introduction. Thanks to our colleague Yan Wu at Wiley for insights into data sharing requirements in China.