Anisa Rowhani-Farid
Yale University and Queensland University of Technology
Co-Authors: Adrian Aldcroft, Adrian G. Barnett
Did awarding badges increase data sharing at BMJ Open? A randomised controlled trial
INTRODUCTION: Sharing data and code are important components of reproducible research
Data sharing in research is widely discussed in the literature, however there are seemingly no evidence-based incentives that reward data sharing, nor randomised studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of data sharing policies at increasing data sharing. A simple incentive, such as an open data badge, might provide the change needed to increase data sharing in health and medical research.
METHODS: Parallel group RCT, 80 participants per arm (160 total). Primary outcome: data sharing rate. Statistical analyses: Fisher’s exact test as there were small cell sizes. Calculate the percent shared in each treatment arm, the difference between the arms, and a 95% confidence interval of the difference.
RESULTS: The odds ratio for awarding badges in the intervention group relative to the control is 0.9 with a 95% confidence interval from 0.1 to 9.0. The p-value from the Fisher’s exact test is 1.