# State of Open Data 2025

> The longest-running longitudinal study tracking open science practices globally

## About

The State of Open Data is a collaborative research initiative by Springer Nature, Figshare, and Digital Science that has tracked researcher attitudes towards and experiences of open data sharing since 2016. The 2025 report marks the 10th anniversary with insights from over 43,000 researcher responses across 212 countries.

## Key Findings (2025)

### FAIR Principles Awareness
- Unfamiliarity with FAIR principles dropped 40-60 percentage points since 2018
- Most dramatic in Business/Investment: unfamiliarity fell from 80% to 20%
- FAIR = Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable

### AI Adoption in Research
- Active AI use in data processing: 22.1% → 31.9% (one year increase)
- Rapid integration across data collection, processing, and metadata creation
- Shift from awareness to active experimentation

### Regional Mandate Support (2016-2025 changes)
- Australia: steepest decline (-35.8 percentage points)
- Brazil: significant decline (-25.7 percentage points)
- United States: notable decline (-23.2 percentage points)
- India: most stable (-5.1 percentage points)
- Italy: relatively stable (-11 percentage points)

### 2025 Mandate Support by Country
- India: 54.7% (highest)
- Italy: 47.3%
- Spain: 44.7%
- Germany: 40.4%
- Canada: 39.1%
- United Kingdom: 39.1%
- Brazil: 39.0%
- United States: 29.7%
- Australia: 27.4%
- China: 25.8%

### Credit Gap
- 69.2% of researchers believe they receive insufficient credit for data sharing
- Gap has narrowed over five years (from 77.9% in 2020 to 69.2% in 2025) but remains a major barrier
- Systemic changes to academic reward structures have been slow

## Statistics

- Total survey responses: 43,000+
- Countries represented: 212
- Years of data: 10 (2016-2025)
- Sample sizes by year: 2016 (n=1,799), 2017 (n=2,249), 2018 (n=1,196), 2019 (n=8,089), 2020 (n=16,909), 2021 (n=20,639), 2022 (n=25,769), 2023 (n=6,091), 2024 (n=4,454), 2025 (n=3,932)

## Recommendations

1. **Reform research assessment** - Make datasets citable, measurable, and reward data sharing excellence
2. **Invest in AI-enabled solutions** - Strengthen journal-repository integration, adopt common standards
3. **Coordinate regionally** - Build fit-for-purpose repositories reflecting local contexts and data sovereignty needs

## Data Access

- Full report: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28406992
- Raw survey data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31095940
- Past reports: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/campaigns/state-of-open-data

## Partners

- Springer Nature: https://www.springernature.com
- Figshare: https://figshare.com  
- Digital Science: https://www.digital-science.com

## Contact

Website: https://stateofopendata.com