Perception and Reuse of Open Data in the Spanish University Teaching and Research Community.

Introduction. Open Government is a form of public policy based on the pillars of collaboration and citizen participation, transparency and the right of access to public information. With the help of information and communication technologies, governments and administrations carry out open data initiatives, making reusable datasets available to all citizens. The academic community, highly qualified personnel, can become potential reusers of this data, which would lead to its use for scientific research, generating knowledge, and for teaching, improving the training of university students and promoting the reuse of open data in the future. Method. This study was developed using a quantitative research methodology (survey), which was distributed by email in one context block and six technical blocks, with a total of 30 questions. The data collection period was between 15 March and 10 May 2021. Analysis. The data obtained through this quantitative methodology were processed, normalised, and analysed. Results. A total of 783 responses were obtained, from 34 Spanish provinces. The researchers come from 47 Spanish universities and 21 research centres, and 19 research areas of the State Research Agency are represented. In addition, a platform was developed with the data for the purpose of visualising the results of the survey. Conclusions. The sample thus obtained is representative and the conclusions can be extrapolated to the rest of the Spanish university teaching staff. In terms of gender, the study is balanced between men and women (41.76% W vs. 56.58% M). In general, researchers responding to the survey know what open data is (79.31%) but only 50.57% reuse open data. The main conclusion is that open government data prove to be useful sources of information for science, especially in areas such as Social Sciences, Industrial Production, Engineering and Engineering for Society, Information and Communication Technologies, Economics and Environmental Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]