Category Archives: Data policy

Data policy

Nature Research journals improve accessibility of data availability statements

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The Nature Research journals have taken further steps to promote transparency and reproducibility by making information on the availability of research data within our articles easier to access.      

This guest blog comes from Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Head of Data Publishing, Open Research Group at Springer Nature, and Sowmya Swaminathan, Head of Editorial Policy and Research Integrity at Nature Research.

All research articles published in Nature Research titles now provide data availability statements as a distinct article section that is freely and universally accessible. This means that data availability statements are now equivalently accessible to abstracts, full reference lists, supplementary information, acknowledgements, and other key article information. See two examples from Nature here (pictured) and here.

Since 2016, we have required all primary research papers published in Nature Research journals to include a data availability statement. The aim of this policy was to make the conditions of access to the “minimal dataset” ― defined as the dataset necessary to interpret, validate and extend the findings ― transparent to all readers. Data availability statements have become a widely established mechanism for authors to consistently describe if and how research data supporting their publications are available.  Such statements are required by many other Springer Nature journals in addition to the Nature Research journals, including the BMC group of journals, as well as those of other publishers. They are also increasingly used by funding agencies, institutions and researchers, as a means to measure data-sharing practices and behaviours ― and for building better connections between data and literature. Some funding agencies, such as the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, also require that data access statements are provided for policy compliance.

We believe that enhancing discoverability of data availability statements, by providing them as a separate section, could also:

  • Increase accessibility and reuse of the data-supporting publications, by making it easier to find ― by humans and machines
  • Encourage citation and reuse of data, including of data that are not publicly available
  • Promote good practices and common standards in preparing data availability statements
  • Enable funding agencies, institutions and other stakeholders to better monitor data sharing and compliance with data sharing-policies
  • Enable more precise research of data-sharing behaviours and practices

Our change in the way we present data availability statements to readers underscores our commitment to facilitating data access and the importance of data as a crucial component underlying the integrity, re-use and extension of published research. Our guide to authors and our specific guidance on data availability and data citations have been updated to reflect these changes.

Promoting research data sharing at Springer Nature

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This blog was written by Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Head of Data Publishing at Springer Nature, in support of the newly launched, company-wide Springer Nature Research Data Policies.

We want to enable our authors to publish the best research and maximise the benefit of research funding, which includes achieving good practice in the sharing and archiving of research data. We also aim to facilitate authors’ compliance with institution and research funder requirements to share data.

To help accomplish these goals we are introducing a set of standardised research data policies that can be easily adopted by journals and understood by authors. We are developing services to support implementation of the policies and aim to have the most comprehensive and inclusive research data policy of any large publisher.

These new policies and services aim to:

  • improve author service and experience by standardising research data policies and procedures between journals where appropriate
  • improve reader service by providing more consistent links between publications and data
  • improve editor and peer reviewer service by providing more consistent guidelines and support for research data policies, and increased visibility of data in the peer-review process
  • encourage publication of more open and reproducible research
  • increase growth and innovation in research data sharing
  • provide a dedicated Research Data Support helpdesk for Springer Nature authors and editors

The journal research data policy landscape is currently too complex and a major effort to harmonise standards across thousands of journals is long overdue. We want to create greater awareness and, where possible and appropriate, action on research data sharing – while recognising some research communities are more ready than others to introduce strong requirements to share data.

Policies are only effective if they result in action, which means we are working on publication-by-publication implementation. We have devised a modular approach to research data policy, in consultation with researchers across all disciplines, as well as funders, libraries and other stakeholders. We are only at the beginning of this process and titles from across all our imprints are already participating. We welcome feedback from the rest of the publishing and research community on how we have defined these common elements of research data policy.

Figure: Overview of the policies

Figure: Overview of the policies

All our research data policy types support data citation – the formal referencing of public datasets in reference lists – in recognition of the growing importance of robustly linking data to publications.

More than 350 journals have adopted one of the policies. For example, Photosynthesis Research has adopted a Type 1 policy and Plant and Soil has adopted a Type 2 policy. All BioMed Central journals, a growing number of Nature journals, and Palgrave Communications support type 3 policies. Journals with the strictest open data policies such as Scientific Data and Genome Biology support the requirements of the Type 4 policy.

See the FAQs for more information or read the policies in full. Our centralised and standardised research data policy resources also include a list of trusted data repositories, how to contact our Research Data Support helpdesk and guidance and examples of preparing Data Availability Statements, which are increasingly required as part of funder policies.

While establishing comprehensive research data policies may not be technologically radical, we believe this effort is both sensible and necessary. We hope to help build the foundations to support a more open and integrated future for research data publishing at Springer Nature across our thousands of publications and hundreds of thousands of customers.