Handling Open Research Data within the Max Planck Society -- Looking Closer at the Year 2020

TL;DR

This study assesses Open Research Data practices within the Max Planck Society in 2020, situating it in the historical and policy context of FAIR principles and data-sharing rhetoric. Using a manual, repository-based review of 1,019 MP publications, it finds that only 40% of empirical works had data available, with open data in just a subset and many data availability statements relying on data-on-request that often fail. It documents limited use of data licenses and repositories, and notes that research software is more frequently accessible than data, highlighting a need for robust MP-wide data policies and infrastructure. The analysis emphasizes policy development, local governance, and the emergence of national data infrastructures (NFDI) as pivotal to transforming MP data sharing in the 2020s.

Abstract

This paper analyses the practice of publishing research data within the Max Planck Society in the year 2020. The central finding of the study is that up to 40\% of the empirical text publications had research data available. The aggregation of the available data is predominantly analysed. There are differences between the sections of the Max Planck Society but they are not as great as one might expect. In the case of the journals, it is also apparent that a data policy can increase the availability of data related to textual publications. Finally, we found that the statement on data availability "upon (reasonable) request" does not work.

Figures (13)

• Figure 1: Distribution of third-party funds of the Max Planck Society in 2020
• Figure 2: Ten Most Frequent Publisher of the Empirical Selected Publications
• Figure 3: Distribution of Publications by Max Planck Sections
• Figure 4: Distribution of Publications within the GSH Section
• Figure 5: Classification According to Empirical and Non-Empirical