Despite widespread support from policy makers, funding agencies, and scientific journals, academic researchers rarely make their research data available to others. At the same time, data sharing in research is attributed a vast potential for scientific progress. It allows the reproducibility of study results and the reuse of old data for new research questions. Based on a systematic review of 98 scholarly papers and an empirical survey among 603 secondary data users, we develop a conceptual framework that explains the process of data sharing from the primary researcher’s point of view. We show that this process can be divided into six descriptive categories: Data donor, research organization, research community, norms, data infrastructure, and data recipients. Drawing from our findings, we discuss theoretical implications regarding knowledge creation and dissemination as well as research policy measures to foster academic collaboration. We conclude that research data cannot be regarded a knowledge commons, but research policies that better incentivize data sharing are needed to improve the quality of research results and foster scientific progress.

What Drives Academic Data Sharing

Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots

While attention to logging in the tropics has been increasing, studies on the long-term effects of silviculture on forest dynamics and ecology remain scare and spatially limited Indeed, most of our knowledge on tropical forests arise from studies carried out in undisturbed tropical forests This bias is problematic given that logged and disturbed tropical forests are covering now a larger area than the so-called primary forests The Tropical managed Forests Observatory (TmFO), a new network of permanent sample plots in logged forests, aims to fill this gap by providing unprecedented opportunities to examine long-term data on the resilience of logged tropical forests at regional and global scales TmFO currently includes 24 experimental sites distributed across three tropical regions, with a total of 536 pem1anent plots and about 1200 ha of forest inventories In this paper we will present the main results generated by the network on the impact of logging on Carbon and timber recovery, as well as biodiversity changes in the Amazon basin and South East Asia

The Tropical managed Forests Observatory: a research network addressing the future of tropical logged forests

. Damayanto IPGP, Rustiami H, Miftahudin, Chikmawati T. 2020. A Synopsis of Bambusoideae (Poaceae) in Lombok, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 4489-4500. There is little documentation of bamboo on Lombok. Non-native Indonesian bamboos have been reported occurring in Lombok. As such, suspicious bamboo specimens and information in those reports need to be examined and possibly re-determined. This study aimed to provide updated taxonomical information of bamboo species in Lombok and to investigate the accuracy of previous studies regarding the existence of several non-native Indonesian bamboo species on the island (i.e. they do not have original distribution in Indonesia). Data from fieldwork were combined with specimens in Herbarium Bogoriense to create a synopsis of bamboo in Lombok and to develop an identification key to the species. Eleven species of bamboos in Lombok were reported from this study, namely Bambusa glaucophylla, B. maculata, B. multiplex, B. spinosa, B. vulgaris, Dendrocalamus asper, Gigantochloa apus, G. atter, Schizostachyum brachycladum, S. lima, and Thyrsostachys siamensis. Several doubtful species (B. albustiata, B. ventricosa, Guadua angustifolia, S. jaculans, Pseudosasa japonica) were presented to clarify the existence of a non-native Indonesian bamboo in Lombok. Moreover, there is not enough evidence to state Dinochloa sp. occurred in Lombok. The results of this study can be used by stakeholders for bamboo identification and as the baseline taxonomic account for future studies and conservation of bamboo species in Lombok.

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A synopsis of Bambusoideae (Poaceae) in Lombok, Indonesia

Floristics of forests across low nutrient soils in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Permanent sampling plots (PSPs) are a powerful and reliable methodology to help our understanding of the diversity and dynamics of tropical forests. Based on the current inventory of PSPs in Indonesia, there is high potential to establish a long-term collaborative forest monitoring network. Whilst there are challenges to initiating such a network, there are also innumerable benefits to help us understand and better conserve these exceptionally diverse ecosystems.

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Tajudin Edy Komar

Papers

Opportunities and challenges for an Indonesian forest monitoring network