Use and users of a social science research data archive.

• Main Authors: Elina Late, Jaana Kekäläinen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233455

This study focuses on the use and users of Finnish social science research data archive. Study is based on enriched user data of the archive from years 2015-2018. Study investigates the number and type of downloaded datasets, the number of citations for data, the demographics of data downloaders and the purposes data are downloaded for. Datasets were downloaded from the archive 10346 times. Majority of the downloaded datasets are quantitative. Quantitative datasets are also more often cited, but the number of citations vary and does not always correlate with the number of downloads. Use of the archive varies by user's country, organization, and discipline. Datasets from the archive were downloaded most often for study work, bachelor's and master's theses, and research purposes. It is likely that reusing research data will increase in the near future as more data will become available, scholars are more informed about research data management, and data citation practices are established.