There are several possible reasons for wanting or needing to share - make globally and openly accessible, or with some restrictions if necessary - research data:
- To enable replicability and openness of research - for the benefit of science, other researchers, the public, policymakers, journalists, students, ...
- To potentially increase citations of the publication(s) based on the research data (see: Sharing Detailed Research Data Is Associated with Increased Citation Rate). Researchers finding research data that is linked to the article or other empirical work based on that data may increase the exposure, reading, and citation of that work.
- To potentially increase the impact of one's research by making its data available to a broader audience than would read, or could even access, the publication(s) based on the data.
- Because a research funder or publisher requires it.
