Data withholding in academic medicine: characteristics of faculty denied access to research results and biomaterials

Abstract

The sharing and withholding of research results is a topic of intense debate within the scientific community. However, few studies have addressed this issue. This study examines how frequently academic scientists are denied access to other investigators' research results and the characteristics of faculty who are most likely to have this experience. This paper is based on data from a mailed survey of a stratified, random sample of faculty in 117 US medical schools (n=2366, response rate 62.2%) conducted in 1996–1997. The results show that 12.5% of researchers in medical schools have been denied access to other academic investigators' data within the last 3 years. Researchers who were most likely to be victims of data withholding were those who have withheld research results from others, published more than 20 articles in the last 3 years, to have applied for a patent, or spent more than 40 hours per week in research activities.