Primary Research Data and Scholarly Communication

Abstract

Abstract One of the questions that scholarly publishers have faced as a result of the increasing interest in research data is the relationship of journal articles to the research data behind those articles. From the 1970s forward, journals in the physical sciences published research data in the form of supplemental materials. Due to economic considerations and the sheer volume of data, this supplemental material was generally distributed in microform. In the late 1990s, some publishers began experimenting with digital distribution of research data. By the early 2000s, the volume of research data being submitted was causing problems for editors and reviewers. This tension was captured well in an editorial by Emilie Marcus in Cell in 2009. [1]