Data sharing is widely thought to help research quality and efficiency. Data sharing mandates are increasingly being adopted by journals and the purpose of this paper is to assess whether they work.
This study examines two evolutionary biology journals, Evolution and Heredity, that have data sharing mandates and make extensive use of Dryad. It uses a quantitative analysis of presence in Dryad, downloads and citations.
Within both journals, data sharing seems to be complete, showing that the mandates work on a technical level. Low correlations (0.15-0.18) between data downloads and article citation counts for articles published in 2012 within these journals indicate a weak relationship between data sharing and research impact. An average of 40-55 data downloads per article after a few years suggests that some use is found for shared life sciences data.
The value of shared data uses is unclear.
Data sharing mandates should be encouraged as an effective strategy.
This is the first analysis of the effectiveness of data sharing mandates.
