Researchers' attitudes, intention, and practices towards Open Science: Data from China and Nigeria

Open science (OS) practices have gained broad recognition in psychology, especially in social and personality psychology, and many surveys have examined researchers’ perspectives on OS to identify ways to increase adoption. Yet current evidence comes predominantly from Western regions where OS is relatively established, leaving many other research contexts understudied. Here we present survey data from 372 researchers in China and Nigeria, two countries distinct research contexts. We examined respondents’ awareness and lifetime use of OS practices, attitudes and intentions toward OS, perceived barriers, and perceptions of questionable research practices (QRPs). Respondents in both countries were generally aware of OS practices and viewed them favorably, but engagement was uneven across practices and implementation intentions were lower for more demanding practices such as registered reports, replication studies, and preregistration. Reported barriers reflected both shared challenges and country-specific constraints: researchers in both countries reported a lack of OS training and education, whereas Chinese researchers emphasized incentives and evaluation policies, while Nigerian researchers faced greater infrastructural constraints. Consistent with previous surveys, many common QRPs were perceived as widespread, and self-reported engagement in QRPs was not negligible. These findings suggest that positive attitudes toward OS do not by themselves ensure implementation, especially when openness requires additional labor, infrastructure, training, or career risk. Our results also highlight the limits of standardized OS surveys and the need for more contextualized approaches, including the full spectrum of OS practices, qualitative methods, and the perspective of researchers actively promoting OS in non-Western contexts.