Exploring the Motive for Data Publication in Open Data Initiative: Linking Intention to Action

The present article reports a study on the motivation for publishing research datasets in the open data linking intention and action in regard to publishing datasets. This research study was designed to broaden understanding of the behavioral nature of publishing research datasets by distinguishing between the intention to share and the action of sharing. The data was generated from preliminary survey results conducted by Data ONE work groups. The final data used in this paper is based on 587 observations. The analysis results show support for all of the path coefficients of the theoretical model except for the path of perceived self-efficacy, and legal context and policy variables. The intention to share a dataset was found to be a significant determinant in the action of sharing data. Acknowledging the key determinants of intention to publish datasets arguably entails significant policy implications on data sharing.