Investigating Data Sharing Practices in Teaching Effectiveness Research

Sharing research data promotes transparency and cumulative knowledge building. This is especially relevant in teaching effectiveness research, where acquiring classroom data is challenging. Despite the benefits, previous studies indicate low data availability in educational research. This study examines data sharing practices in 167 studies, acquired via a two-step process: first, identifying meta-analyses in teaching effectiveness research, and second, scanning them for articles meeting specific criteria (longitudinal, peer-reviewed, primary data, publication year). For each article, we checked for a repository link and contacted corresponding authors if none was provided. Only 13 publications included a repository link. Among the contacted researchers, one-third had outdated contact details. Of the remaining researchers, 36 responded, with 9 agreeing to share their data. The overall availability rate was 13.2%, with the odds of data-sharing decreasing by 19% annually post-publication. Our results show the need to archive data in repositories, as its availability upon request remains limited.