The formation of research ethics for data sharing by biological scientists: an empirical analysis

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how biological scientists form research ethics for data sharing, and what the major factors affecting biological scientists’ formation of research ethics for data sharing are.

A research model for data sharing was developed based on the consequential theorists’ perspective of ethics. An online survey of 577 participants was administered, and the proposed research model was validated with a structural equation modeling technique.

The results show that egoism factors (perceived reputation, perceived risk, perceived effort), utilitarianism factors (perceived community benefit and perceived reciprocity) and norm of practice factors (perceived pressure by funding agency, perceived pressure by journal and norm of data sharing) all contribute to the formation of research ethics for data sharing.

This research employed the consequentialist perspective of ethics for its research model development, and the proposed research model nicely explained how egoism, utilitarianism and norm of practice factors influence biological scientists’ research ethics for data sharing, which eventually leads to their data sharing intentions.

This research provides important practical implications for examining scientists’ data sharing behaviors from the perspective of research ethics. This research suggests that scientists’ data sharing behaviors can be better facilitated by emphasizing their egoism, utilitarianism and normative factors involved in research ethics for data sharing.

The ethical perspectives in data sharing research has been under-studied; this research sheds light on biological scientists’ formation of research ethics for data sharing, which can be applied in promoting scientists’ data sharing behaviors across different disciplines.