Competition or diversion? Effect of public sharing of data on research productivity of data provider

Abstract

Scientists are concerned that publicly disclosing research data may harm their research productivity by reducing exclusive opportunities for publication. However, the literature on scientists' intentions to use others' resources and their competitive behavior in research suggests theoretical ambiguity in this concern, calling for a more nuanced understanding through empirical analysis. This study investigates the effect of public sharing research data on the research productivity of data providers. Our empirical strategy leverages funding policy initiatives by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which mandated investigators to publicly share research data via a designated online data archive. Using panel difference-in-differences regression and synthetic control method, we find no evidence of a negative impact on the research productivity of data providers. Additional analyses indicate that this null effect may be explained by the prominence of data recipients who use the data to pursue research inquiries distant from those of the data providers. These findings have implications for science policy, particularly in designing institutional frameworks to promote sustainable research data-sharing practices among scientists.