With the increasing emphasis on open science, researchers are expected to share their data for various purposes, including compliance, backup, and long-term preservation. Calls for data sharing come from peers, journals and funders.  Education research lags somewhat behind other social science disciplines (Logan et al., 2021) but data availability and sharing for secondary analysis and collaboration becomes more common. This symposium focuses on the data that could be used as an empirical basis for education research and secondary analysis. Data is to research what food is for metabolism. The right amount of relevant and useful data is needed, because too much, too little, too processed, or little-known data could make for poor research. Finding the right balance requires reflections on resources and future potential use of data.

While there is a growing understanding amongst researchers about the importance of data sharing, there is also an increasing interest in better understanding how and what data should be curated and shared and which data are reused and for what purposes. 

Each contribution in the symposium depicts challenges in one of these stages of dealing with the data: their capture, selection for storing, and reusing. These three stages are closely interlinked. All contributions are connected by striving to support data accessibility, secondary analysis, and contribute to sharing and collaboration with the overall aim of conducting high-quality educational research.

The first contribution discusses the extended analytical potential of computer-based assessments. The second contribution examines selection processes in data provision and presents an evaluation framework for assessing the reuse potential of research data. The third contribution investigates who uses secondary research data, for what purposes, and what challenges they encounter. 

A critical reflection on these issues thereon is important considering research funding sustainability, the open science movement, and the justification of researchers’ efforts in data sharing and reuse.

The symposium covers contributions from three European institutions (two) located in Germany (one affiliated to the Netherlands) and (one) in Switzerland. These contributions will be facilitated and discussed by colleagues representing additional countries - Austria and Slovakia.

Logan, J. A. R., Hart, S. A., & Schatschneider, C. (2021). Data Sharing in Education Science. AERA Open, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211006475