Over the 7 years of our survey of society members we’ve seen a shift in the publishing industry, especially with the increase in open access publishing. The call for greater openness in the sharing of the data that sits behind the research has also been increasing. So, it’s evident that the need for more open data is on the rise, but what exactly does this year’s Wiley Society Member Survey tell us about that?

The ongoing rise of open data

Generally, members agree that open data is becoming more important. In last year’s survey, just over half had noted the rise in importance over the previous 12 months, and this year it’s gone up to 53%. Interestingly, there was very little difference in responses based on how experienced members are or where they’re from geographically, although growth is significantly higher in the Americas at 72% than it is in places like in the United States (54%).

Those who are strongly in favour of open data are usually most engaged with the content published by a society (64%), have attended a society webinar (59%), work in cross-disciplinary subjects (72%), in a university (74%) or for the government (78%).

More open access means more open data

Across the entire survey, 42% of societies support open data, and unsurprisingly the strongest support comes from those societies who publish some or all of their journals open access (OA). With a growth in the number of transitional agreements and 58% saying switching the society journal to OA would have no impact or devalue their membership, we’re likely to see even more open access publishing in the near future. Since OA seems to be a driver of open data, we can expect growth here as well.

A loud and clear stance on openness

Since the case for open data and access seems clear, it’s worth mentioning that the message isn’t getting through to everyone in the research community. Open research in general seems to be growing in importance, with the main benefits being better verification of data and improved impact from results. However, 41% of survey respondents still say they don’t know if their society supports open data. This is alarming, since they probably are not sure of the benefits either. Societies can be doing more to get the message about the importance of open research out to their members and make their stance on the subject loud and clear.

What do members want?

On the whole, members want support and guidance from their societies around open initiatives. Just over a third think that societies should encourage the sharing of data as opposed to making it mandatory, but it’s providing guidelines about how to share data (25%) and technical support (18%) that societies should be considering doing more of.  

Societies need to listen to what their members want and provide them with the tools and guidelines to help them achieve it. Open data isn’t just a practice, it’s a movement that societies need to join before they’re left behind.