Is it all about money? A perspective on volunteer and paid contributors from The Turing Way community via a qualitative registered report

Preprint submitted to Peer Community In - Registered Reports. 

Abstract: 

This study considers how financial support influences contributions to The Turing Way, a book and community for best practices in inclusive and reproducible data science. The Turing Way is a particularly interesting case study, as from its inception until June 2025 it received institutional support from The Alan Turing Institute (UK) which resulted in directly financial compensated contributors. Next to contributors affiliated with The Alan Turing Institute however, a wider range of individuals also contribute to the community and the book, with over 500 acknowledged contributors). Most of these individuals contribute on a volunteer basis and do not receive direct financial compensation. The lines of being considered paid are furthermore blurred in this community, as some individuals do receive some sort of institutional backing instead of solely contributing to the community or the book in their spare time. Therefore, this study first identifies what the community members consider as ‘being (financially) compensated ’ for their contributions. Then, perspectives of community members with differential financial support will be compared, and the dynamics caused by these differential backgrounds on contributions to The Turing Way and the long term sustainability of the community and book will be examined.