The narrative structure as a citation context in data papers: A preliminary analysis of Scientific Data

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe data paper is a new type of scientific publication aiming to describe data objects per se and bridge the gaps between scientific writing and data‐driven scientific practice. Despite its importance, we are still largely in the dark as to the narrative structure of this emerging genre of scientific writing. In this poster, we presented and discussed some preliminary empirical evidence of the narrative structure of data papers and the distribution of cited sources in relation to this structure, based on a manual examination of 40 data papers from the journal of Scientific Data. Our findings suggest that even though data papers have a different structure from research papers, their paper sections bear distinct narrative functions as illustrated by the pattern of citation distribution. Moreover, some of these sections have similar functions to their counterparts in research papers. The implications of our initial findings and the next step of our project were explained in conclusion.