The empirical social sciences largely rely on the collection and analysis of research data. In recent years, several recommendations on the more open sharing of research data have been published. These recommendations aim at making science more transparent and replicable. In reality, however, many important research datasets are still not accessible. The project investigates how different factors influence the data sharing behavior of the authors of research papers in sociology and political sciences. It starts with an analysis of journal attributes and the articles published by selected journals to show how authors deal with their data. Second, a survey among the authors is conducted based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. This shows how personal characteristics are related to authors’ data sharing behavior.

Full selection of the journals in the Social Science Citation Index in the category "Political Science" and "Sociology"; All articles from 5 selected journals in each discipline from 2012 to 2014; One author per article for the survey.

Web-based interview Computer-based observationInhaltscodierung