Sharing Social Science Data: Advantages and Challenges(SAGE Focus Editions)

Although major funding agencies now require social scientists to share their documented raw data, scientists have been reluctant to comply. The reasons include unwillingness to divulge all of the conditions under which the data were generated, cost in time and money, and the desire by social scientists to carry the research further themselves. Data sharing, however, promises to foster more open, cost-effective and cumulative research, and to improve the quality of methodology, data and inference. Sharing Social Science Data presents the major accomplishments of social scientists who have pioneered in data sharing, highlighting the advantages for social science. It also includes an examination of the reasons for data sharing, the specific sharing practices in various disciplines, the factors affecting the usefulness of shared data (documentation, archiving, and marketing), and individual and institutional concerns about data sharing. A timely examination, this cohesive and well written volume will interest graduate students and researchers in all areas of the social sciences. ". . .the chapters are thoughtful and well written, and they address many of the crucial issues faced by the social sciences in the 1990s. . . .anyone who wants to help shape the future of the social and behavioral sciences can benefit from giving this book at least a quick read." --Contemporary Psychology

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Joan E Sieber Sharing Social Science Data PART ONE: EXAMPLES OF DATA SHARING APPROACHES Sharing Data in the Population Sciences - V Jeffery Evans Domestic and International Trends Sharing Anthropological Data with Peers and Third World Hosts - Douglas White Sharing Confidential and Sensitive Data in Criminal and Civil Justice Research - Robert F Boruch, Albert Reiss, Joel Garner and Kinley Larntz PART TWO: ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL SHARING The Science of Data Sharing - Martin David Documentation Establishing and Operating a Social Science Data Archive - Josephina J Card and James L Peterson Use of Shared Data Sets in Teaching Statistics and Methodology - Joan E Sieber and Bruce E Trumbo PART THREE: CHALLENGES Social Scientists′ Concerns About Sharing Data - Joan E Sieber Normative Issues in Data Sharing - Vivian Weil and Rachelle Hollander

About the Author :
Joan E. Sieber, a psychologist and Professor Emerita, California State University, East Bay, has specialized in empirical research on questions of scientific ethics, culturally sensitive methods of research and intervention, data sharing methodology, and scholarship on ethical problem solving. In 2001-2002, she was Acting Director of the National Science Foundation program Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science and Technology. She is the author of eight books and numerous other publications including software and encyclopedia entries on ethical problem solving in social and behavioral research.