Challenges and Best Practices Associated with Sharing Research Materials and Research Data for Communication Scholars

Scientific practices are constantly evolving to meet the best practices and standards available at a point in time. In the current publication environment, advances in communication technology in tandem with concerns about the transparency of extant communication scholarship have encouraged many to reconsider how we share knowledge with one another. Among a broader suite of open science practices, two specific changes have been advocated for: sharing research materials and sharing research data. As part of an ongoing conversation within communication science, this essay summarizes and explains how researchers can critically consider so-called “open materials” and “open data” when publishing in Communication Studies as well as other communication and adjacent journals.