The impact of open data on research productivity and academic collaboration: A systematic literature review (2021–2025)

Open data is reshaping research by enhancing transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration. This review analyzes more than 120 peer-reviewed studies (2021–2025) to evaluate their impact on academic collaboration and productivity, especially in emerging countries like Saudi Arabia. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, we find consistent links between open data and increased citations, co-authorship, and interdisciplinary work, for example, genome-wide studies with shared data saw up to 81.8% more citations. However, openness is uneven: environmental and life sciences lead in principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data (FAIR) compliance, while engineering and materials science trail. North America and Europe dominate open data infrastructure, although Saudi Arabia shows policy-driven progress under Vision 2030. Key barriers include data quality concerns, lack of incentives, ethical constraints, and limited infrastructure in low-resource contexts. This review highlights thematic patterns, visualizes trends, and offers recommendations to improve practices and foster inclusive global research collaboration.