Processes and Procedures for Data Publication: A Case Study in the Geosciences

Angus Whyte,Fiona Murphy,John Kunze,Jonathan Tedds,Matthew S Mayernik,Rebecca Lawrence,Rob Allan,Sarah Callaghan

doi:10.2218/ijdc.v8i1.253

Abstract

The Peer REview for Publication and Accreditation of Research Data in the Earth sciences (PREPARDE) project is a JISC and NERC funded project which aims to investigate the policies and procedures required for the formal publication of research data, ranging from ingestion into a data repository, through to formal publication in a data journal. It also addresses key issues arising in the data publication paradigm, including, but not limited to, issues related to how one peer reviews a dataset, what criteria are needed for a repository to be considered objectively trustworthy, and how datasets and journal publications can be effectively cross-linked for the benefit of the wider research community. PREPARDE brings together a wide range of experts in the research, academic publishing and data management fields both within the Earth Sciences and in the broader life sciences with the aim of producing general guidelines applicable to a wide range of scientific disciplines and data publication types. This paper provides details of the work done in the first half of the project; the project itself will be completed in June 2013.

Highlights

Data has always been the foundation of scientific progress, up until recently it has been difficult to share and scrutinise
Once a dataset is made freely downloadable from a webpage, it is hard to track how the data is being used and by whom, and limited academic credit is currently provided to the dataset creators
Data publication can piggy-back on the existing journal infrastructure to provide a “stamp of approval” in the form of scientific peer review (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

Data has always been the foundation of scientific progress, up until recently it has been difficult to share and scrutinise. An online-only journal, GDJ publishes short data papers cross-linked to, and citing, datasets that have been deposited in approved data centres and awarded DOIs.”1

Results

Conclusion