How Can Librarians Support Data Sharing in the Humanities and Social Sciences?

Improving and facilitating scholarship through data sharing

Posted on May 7, 2025 in Podcasts

Data sharing is a common and well-regarded practice in the sciences. Meant to foster higher quality scholarship and transparency, scholars make their data available to other researchers and organizations. While data sharing seems straightforward enough for quantitative fields, what might it look like for fields in the humanities and social sciences that rely on qualitative research or other forms of data? Equally important, can sharing these data benefit these fields in a similar way?

Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Head of Open Data Initiatives, and Dr. Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research, both at Taylor & Francis, address these questions in this installment of Choice’s podcast, The Authority File. Their conversation covers currently data sharing practices in the humanities and social sciences, consider its importance, and highlight how librarians can get involved.

Listen now to episode 409:

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About the guests:

Rebecca Taylor-Grant, PhD
Head of Open Data Initiatives
Taylor & Francis

Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant is Head of Open Data Initiatives at Taylor & Francis, where she leads the development of policies and practices to increase open and FAIR data sharing. She has a background in data management for the humanities and social sciences and is co-chair of the STM Association’s Research Data Program Humanities Data Subgroup, as well as the Research Data Alliance Data Policy Standardisation and Implementation Interest Group. She is a qualified Open Data trainer certified by the Open Data Institute. Her doctoral thesis explored the connections between archival theory and research data management practice, using Ireland as a case study.

Emily Farrell, PhD
Global Commercial Director, Open Research
Taylor & Francis

Emily Farrell is the Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis where she works to foster partnerships that support greater access to knowledge. She has held roles in editorial, sales, and partnership development at De Gruyter and The MIT Press. She completed her PhD in Sociolinguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney and has held positions on the board of the Foundation for t

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