ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES OF DATA SHARING AND DATA PRESERVATION AMONG SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCHERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse current practices and attitudes towards research data sharing among social science researchers in the Republic of North Macedonia. Considering the growing importance of the principle of open access to research data, particularly data collected with public funding, and the unification of data sharing practices on a global level, the goal is to examine the sharing and archiving potential for research data in the Republic of North Macedonia. According to the findings, a significant amount of research data is created in the country. Despite being predominantly financed from international funds, respondents’ positive attitudes towards data sharing and the satisfactory degree of willingness for depositing data into an accredited data archive/repository, demonstrate a good potential in the country for saving existing data towards further use of existing data for new scientific purposes.