Survey and analysis of the data policy of the journals listed in the Excellence Action Plan for China's STM Journals Program for example

Abstract

As an important output of scientific research, scientific data play an important role in scholarly communication. The establishment of the data policy of STM journals is of great significance to promote the data sharing, data reuse, data citation and scientific research evaluation. In this paper, by means of literature research and online research and based on the information published on journal websites, we surveyed the data policies operation status of 302 STM journals that were selected as the leading journals, key journals, and echelon journals in the Excellence Action Plan for China's STM Journals. Then we statistically analyzed the data policy setting, and the features of the policy, such as classification types, data availability, and data citation. The survey shows the current practice progress of China’s high-level STM journals related to scientific data publishing. Among the statistical journal sources, 81.82% of leading journals, 62.07% of key journals, 34.67% of echelon journals and 69.23% of high-starting new journals have formulated relevant data policies. According to survey results, the publication of data in STM journals has been widely recognized as one of the effective ways to promote scientific data sharing. Presently, all major publishing institutions have developed relevant data policies. Compared with the international counterparts, the data publishing of China’s STM journals still has a long way to go in industry recognition and framework strategy, and it is urgent to develop a universal data policy framework for different journals and publishers.