Data sharing is key for replication and re-use in empirical research. Scientific journals can play a central role by establishing data policies and providing technologies. In this study factors of influence for data sharing are analyzed by investigating journal data policies and author behavior in sociology. The websites of 140 journals from sociology were consulted to check their data policy. The results are compared with similar studies from political science and economics. For five selected journals with a broad variety all articles from two years are examined to see if authors really cite and share their data, and which factors are related to this.

Inhaltscodierung Internetbeobachtung

Content Analysis Web-based observation

Journals of the 2013 Social Science Citation Index; Articles from 5 selected journals in 2012 and 2013.

Full selection of the journals in the 2013 Social Science Citation Index in the category "sociology"; All articles from 5 selected journals in 2012 and 2013.