Tracing the footsteps of open research data in China

While the scientific research value, economic value and social value of research data have become increasingly apparent, the significance of open research data has reached a consensus. This article gives an introduction to open research data policies and measures in China, and reports on the status of constructing necessary infrastructure, specifically open data repositories. We compare open data repositories in China and Western countries in terms of scale, subject distribution, data policies, service and content operations. In addition, this article summarizes methods and motivations for data sharing among researchers in China. Finally, the paper discusses the characteristics, potential problems and challenges of China's open research data practices. We conclude with some suggestions for the future development of open research data in China from data policy, infrastructure construction, compliance with international standards and norms, credibility and influence improvement, incentives for data sharing and encouraging data sharing research practices.