Thing 16: What are publishers & funders saying about data?

Overview

Teaching: min
Exercises: min

Questions

• What are publishers & funders perspectives on research data?

Objectives

• Objective 1.

Thing 16: What are publishers & funders saying about data? Data sharing policies are becoming increasingly common in Australia and internationally. Learn why research funders and journal publishers are particularly influential when it comes to encouraging data availability.

Getting started: experience what it’s like to navigate journal data policies Learn more: this newly announced journal data policy might affect data around the globe Challenge me: 2020 vision about the future of data and funders.

Getting started: Research data and scholarly publishing

Two choices for Thing 16!

Two exciting things are happening with data and journal publishers. More and more journal publishers are asking authors to make the data underpinning a journal article available. And, new forms of data publishing are emerging: data journals.

It’s all about ensuring that the research being described in the article is based on solid, reproducible science. Thinking back to Thing 5: Data Sharing, remember that “available” can be “open” or “shared” through mediated access.

Choice 1: Journal Data Policies

More and more publishers are suggesting, asking and even mandating that underpinning data be available to support journal articles. Choose one of the links below to explore some of these policies.

PLOS One data policy Dryad is a data repository which integrates data and articles. It lists how and when to submit your data for 102 journals Look up a journal you know and see what the advice the journal gives on related data.

Consider: How easy, or hard, it was for you to understand what you had to do in regard to research data?

Choice 2: Data journals

Explore this relatively new form of data publishing: the data journal. Data journals focus on data, rather than discuss an analysis of the data (as in traditional journals).

Read this short introduction: What are data journals? Browse this data paper on how and why the Chinese population has been on the move in the past 70 years recently published in Nature’s data journal: Scientific Data. Note the extensive exposure of the data through maps, links to full tables, and diagrams etc. and how to cite this article. Clicking on the DOI under Data Citations will take you to the actual data described in the article.

Consider: Why do you think authors might choose to share their data in data journals rather than, or in addition to, traditional journal formats? Learn more: Planning to publish: research data

In July this year, the global journal publisher Springer announced a new, company wide set of standardised research data policies consisting of four levels of data sharing. These policies have been adopted by over 350 journals already. Start reading this blog post Promoting research data sharing at Springer Nature about the 4 levels of research data sharing policies. Spend a bit of time clicking the links near the bottom of the post: FAQs, policies in full, list of trusted data repositories, preparing Data Availability Statements (which are increasingly required as part of funder policies).

Consider: your top three pieces of advice for a young researcher aiming to publish in one of the Springer journals which has a Type 3 or Type 4 data sharing policy: Hint: Thing 15 Data Management Plans might provide some ideas.

Challenge me: Research funders and data sharing

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded more than $896 million in 2015 for health and medical research including 1030 new grants to universities, medical research institutions and hospitals across Australia. International collaborations mean that research teams need to consider Australian as well as the data sharing policies of their overseas collaborators. Start by reading the NHMRC Statement on Data Sharing (2 pages) and note the lifecycle diagram for data sharing. Then choose one of these major funders of research overseas and have a look at their data sharing policies: National Science Foundation in the US, and note the Data Management Plan requirement (see Thing 15: DMPs) Wellcome Trust in the UK (1 page).

Now, imagine it is 2020… consider what you think Australian research funders will be requiring of researchers who are seeking project funding. What does this mean for those working in data support areas?

Key Points

• First key point.