Project StORe: Social Science report

Abstract

There was widespread support across the social science research community regarding the aims of the StORe Project Nearly half of social science respondents claimed that both source-to-output and out-put-to source repositories would offer a ‘significant advantage to my work’; a third in both cases claimed it would be ‘useful but not of major significance’ Postgraduate students were generally more enthusiastic about source-to-output and output-to-source repositories than academic staff Academic staff suggested the StORe Project aims would benefit postgraduate students more than themselves; they anticipated StORe as a training tool. Researchers reported limitations in access, completeness of data, navigability of data and concern with deposited research in repositories as their main concerns Researchers generally supported sharing of research in principle, but also admitted a sense of ownership of their own research data and work (producer-consumer distinctions) Researchers work in a relatively independent and ‘organic’ fashion; they use different search techniques and consult as widely as possible to find the information and material they want Researchers tend to produce and store their data in an idiosyncratic fashion, assigning their own metadata to their work Few researchers deposit data in source repositories Researchers that deposit data in source repositories do not show substantial differences to the wider research community in terms of metadata assignation or controlling access to their work Researchers appear to share their work in a personal manner, based on direct requests and based on merit