Data Preservation, Sharing and Reuse Practises among Agricultural Researchers in Tanzania
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Date
2023
Authors
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Agricultural research data preservation, sharing, and use practices are crucial in
enhancing research activities in Tanzania. However, little is known about the preservation,
sharing, and use/reuse practises among agricultural researchers in the country. The main
purpose of this study was to investigate data preservation, sharing, and use/reuse
practises among agricultural researchers in Tanzania. Specifically, the study, focused on
data sources for accessibility and reuse practises among agricultural researchers in
Tanzania; analysed the communication channels and their potential applicability in
enhancing agricultural research data sharing among agricultural researchers in Tanzania;
examined the data preservation practises for enhancing agricultural research data usage
among researchers in Tanzania, and examined the factors influencing agricultural
researchers’ data sharing practises for enhanced accessibility of agriculture research data
in Tanzania.
The current study employed cross-sectional survey methods to investigate data
preservation, data-sharing, and use/reuse practises among agricultural researchers in
Tanzania. The study was conducted in Agricultural Research Institutions (TARI) centres
and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) as an academic and agricultural research
institution. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in data collection
and analysis. The study involved 227 agricultural researchers who were randomly
selected from the study area. Purposively, eleven (11) key informants were selected,
namely eleven Directors/Managers from selected TARI centres and one (1) Director of
Postgraduate Studies, Research, Technology Transfer & Consultancy for SUA. Also, two
Focus Group Discussions which included six participants from Mikocheni TARI centre and
IIonga TARI centre) were conducted in these two centres. The data collection involved the
use of multiple data-gathering techniques (questionnaires and interviews and focus group
discussions). Quantitative data were analysed with the help of the Statistical Product
Service Solution (SPSS) Version 22 while thematic analysis was used to analyse
qualitative data. Descriptive statistics techniques were calculated to establish the
demographic characteristics of respondents, data sources and use/reuse practises,
existing communication channels and their applicability in data sharing, data preservation
practices in enhancing data usage, and factors influencing agricultural researchers’ data
sharing practises for enhanced accessibility of agriculture research data in Tanzania.
The findings indicate that agricultural researchers use/reuse data that are accessed from
different other sources. Findings reveal that the majority of researchers 95.1% use/reuse
data in writing scientific papers. Research data are also used in writing technical reports
and project proposals. Similarly, results from Binary Logistic Regression Analysis revealed
that factors influencing researchers in the use/reuse of research data were not statistical
significance meaning that all factors (independent variables) contributed equally to
influence researchers in actual data use/reuse.
Furthermore, findings reveal that both mediated and non-mediated channels exist and
were used as data-sharing channels. The majority of researchers more than 80%
preferred to use non-mediated channels. Moreover, findings show that some mediated
data-sharing channels were least used, including social media platforms, institutional
repositories and funding agency databases. Through cross-tabulation, findings indicate
that the extent of data sharing channel usage at SUA was higher than at the other
research institutions investigated. Some channel usage also has statistical significance
including meetings and conferences p=0.005, website p=0.001, workshop p=0.049,
telephone as interpersonal mediated p=0.045, and technical report p=0.045. This meant
that these channels were preferred for use across all agricultural research institutions.
Findings also indicate that more than fifty percent of the respondents agreed that timely
delivery, the cost for the use of a channel and convenience to a channel were among the
factors influencing researchers in their channel selection. Likewise, findings reveal that the
majority of researchers preferred to preserve their data using different storage devices
such as field notebooks, desktop/personal computers, and institutional libraries.
Moreover, the findings indicate that agricultural researchers preferred to preserve their
data for more than six years after the end of the project. The findings also indicate the
factors that influence researchers in the choice of data preservation methods were: easy
to reach, cost-effective storage devices, support to use the devices, adequate
infrastructure for data preservation, and reliable power supply. Furthermore, the findings
indicate that some factors that influence researchers in data sharing indicating statistical
significance included perceived community benefit, perceived ability to share, data sharing
norms, and funding agency policies. The findings also indicate that the lack of data
sharing policy and the absence of data preservation/management infrastructures, for
example, data repositories were the challenges facing agricultural researchers in data
sharing.
Based on these findings it can be concluded that agricultural researchers share their data
with fellow close research fellows. Agricultural researchers use both mediated and non-
mediated data-sharing channels. The main factors motivating researchers to share their
data include perceived community benefits, perceived ability to share, data-sharing norms
and funding agency policy. Also, it can be concluded that there is yet a great role of
research data preservation in enhancing data usage among researchers in Tanzania.
Description
Ph.D Dissertations
Keywords
Agricultural research data, data sharing, data sharing channels, data reuse, research data.