The Meaningful Data Counts research project, led by Stefanie Haustein (University of Ottawa, ScholCommLab) and Isabella Peters (ZBW, University of Kiel) and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, aims to provide empirical evidence on data usage and data citation behaviour and seeks to improve the understanding of the role that datasets play in scholarly communication. We explore data sharing and citation patterns across academic disciplines and researchers’ career stages as well as underlying motivations to (not) share or cite datasets.

The Meaningful Data Counts project is part of the larger Make Data Count (MDC) initiative, which drives adoption of the building blocks for open data metrics and a community of practice around open, normalized data usage and data citation.