How do properties of data, their curation, and their funding relate to reuse?

Abstract

Despite large public investments in facilitating the secondary use of data, there is little information about the specific factors that predict data’s reuse. Using data download logs from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), this study examines how data properties, curation decisions, and repository funding models relate to data reuse. We find that datasets deposited by institutions, subject to many curatorial tasks, and whose access and preservation is funded externally are used more often. Our findings confirm that investments in data collection, curation, and preservation are associated with more data reuse.