Research Data in Core Journals in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics

Abstract

This study takes a stratified random sample of articles published in 2014 from the top 10 journals in the disciplines of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, as ranked by impact factor. Sampled articles were examined for their reporting of original data or reuse of prior data, and were coded for whether the data was publicly shared or otherwise made available to readers. Other characteristics such as the sharing of software code used for analysis and use of data citation and DOIs for data were examined. The study finds that data sharing practices are still relatively rare in these disciplines’ top journals, but that the disciplines have markedly different practices. Biology top journals share original data at the highest rate, and physics top journals share at the lowest rate. Overall, the study finds that within the top journals, only 13% of articles with original data published in 2014 make the data available to others.

Do you speak open science? Resources and tips to learn the language

“…Open source refers to software that is made available under a license that permits anyone to use, change, improve, or derive from existing source code, and sometimes even to distribute the software 6 . The case for open source code is straightforward: the code researchers write and use to analyze data is a vital part of the scientific research cycle, and, similar to data, is not only necessary to reproduce and interpret the results and corresponding conclusions, but can also be used to answer novel research questions.…”

“…In his review of Michael Neilsen's book "Reinventing Discovery" [3], Timo Hannay describes science as "self-serving" and "uncooperative", "replete with examples of secrecy and resistance to change", and furthermore defines the natural state of researchers as "one of extreme possessiveness" [4]. Hannay might have a point: the majority of research papers are behind a paywall [5], researchers still fail at making data and metadata available [6], reproducibility is hampered by the lack of appropriate reporting of methodologies [7], software is often not released [8], and peer-review is anonymous and slow [9].…”

Theory and practice of data citation

“…5. Data impact: Citing data allows us to define new usage metrics for determining the impact of data; data impact can be interpreted as a way to measure or discover which results have been obtained using the data, how many (2011) Bioinformatics Kafkas, et al (2015) Biomedicine King (1995) Information Studies Klump, et al (2016) Earth Science Koers (2015) Clinical Epidemiology Mayernik (2012) Information Studies (Mayernik, et al, 2017) Information Studies Mooney and Newton (2012) Data Publishing Nature Physics Editorial (2016) Physics Parson (2012) Earth Science Parsons and Fox (2013) Data Publishing Peters et al (2016) Information Studies Pr€ oll and Rauber (2013) Computer Science Sieber and Trumbo (1995) Information Studies Silvello and Ferro (2016) Digital Libraries Silvello (2015) Information Retrieval Silvello (2017) Computer Science Simons, Visser, and Searle, (2013) Digital Libraries Starr et al (2015) Computer Science Thorisson (2009) Biotechnology White (1982 Social Sciences Wormack (2015) Information Studies Zw€ olf et al (2016) Spectroscopy times they have been used, where they have been used, and so on. Note that in the literature, data impact is, frequently, intended as the rate of data usage and not as a quality measure.…”

Do you speak open science? Resources and tips to learn the language

“…Open source refers to software that is made available under a license that permits anyone to use, change, improve, or derive from existing source code, and sometimes even to distribute the software 6 .…”