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 journal data policy might affect data around the globe...
  • Challenge me: the future of data and funders

Getting started

Two choices for this Thing!

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.

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.

  1. PLOS One data policy
  2. Elsevier research data guidelines and policy
  3. 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 a 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).

  1. Read this short introduction: What are data journals?
  2. Browse this data paper published in Nature’s data journal: Scientific Data, on how and why the Chinese population has been on the move in the past 70 years. 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

The number of funders, journals/publishers and institutions implementing a research data policy is growing. However the landscape is complex and implications of policies for researchers can be unclear.

  1. Start by reading about global publisher Springer Nature’s introduction of a standardisation research data policy framework with four data policy types by reading this blog post, Over 600 Springer Nature journals commit to new data sharing policies.
  2. Learn about international efforts to standardise journal data policies through the Research Data Alliance Interest Group on Data Policy Standardisation and Implementation

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: think about what needs to be considered at the start of a research project to enable data sharing upon publication at the end.

Challenge me

Research funders and data sharing

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded more than $896 million (2015) for health and medical research including 1030 new grants to universities, medical research institutions and hospitals across Australia.

  1. Start by reading the NHMRC Open Access Policy (section 3.2 and Appendix 2) and note the lifecycle diagram for data sharing.

  2. Then choose one of these major funders of research overseas and have a look at their data sharing policies:

Consider: what you think Australian research funders will be requiring of researchers who are seeking project funding in the future. What does this mean for those working in data support areas?

Do you have a question? Want to share a resource?

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