Do not only share – but also care: Das komplexe Verhältnis zwischen österreichischer Kommunikationswissenschaft und Forschungsinfrastruktur

Abstract

This article explores which research infrastructures Austrian communication scientists participate in as well as which attitudes Austrian communication scientists articulated towards research infrastructures in the online survey DASH – Data Sharing 2020 and how their assessments differ from colleagues from other social sciences.
The structural analysis of the existing research infrastructure landscape shows that Austrian communication scientists participate in data-generating infrastructures such as the ESS – European Social Survey – as well as data-providing infrastructures such as AUSSDA – the Austrian Social Science Data Archive –, play a prominent role in the national electoral study AUTNES and additionally collaborate in several initiatives that are not formally classified as research infrastructure. In addition to this broad participation in infrastructure, however, it is noticeable that those communication scientists who participated in DASH 2020 show a less positive attitude towards infrastructure than their colleagues from other disciplines. A central variable leading to this assessment is the missing experience in working with secondary data as offered by research infrastructures: Accordingly, it is concluded that a more positive attitude towards research infrastructure could arise through incentives to try it out.