Today, we are pleased to announce the formation of a new Senior Editorial Board, the members of which will guide our larger Editorial Board membership and will play a lead role in setting standards for papers submitted to Scientific Data.
Continue reading
Category Archives: Site Updates
New checklist for ‘complementary’ Data Descriptors
Today, we are releasing a new checklist for authors drafting Data Descriptors that build or expand on other publications. It is now available on our Editorial & Publishing Policies page and from the link below.
Complementary Data Descriptor Checklist
Data Descriptors are designed to be complementary to traditional research articles. Researchers can describe and release their data in a more complete manner, and may be able to reduce their reliance on supplementary material, which can be hard to find and poorly accessible during peer-review, and which offers authors little additional credit. About half of the Data Descriptors published at Scientific Data so far are linked to one or more research articles at other journals. Continue reading
New step-by-step submission guidelines
Today, we released a thoroughly revised and improved version of our Submission Guidelines, making submitting to Scientific Data easier than ever before.
The process of drafting and submitting a manuscript to the journal is now organized into seven clear steps. In Step 1, we provide a simple summary of the journal’s four main content-types (Data Descriptor, Article, Analysis and Comment), so authors can be sure they have selected the most appropriate format before beginning to draft their manuscript. In the next steps, we provide detailed information on depositing data, and on drafting and submitting a manuscript to the journal. These steps focus centrally on the Data Descriptor – the journal’s main content-type and the one that differs most from formats at other journals – but we have also improved the information we provide for authors drafting other content-types. Continue reading
Expanding our generalist data repository options
Since our launch in 2014, we have published descriptions of datasets archived at more than 45 different repositories. This diversity is a key part of the Scientific Data philosophy; we aim to support as wide a range of data repositories as possible, within the constraints of our strong policies on data preservation and openness (learn more). So our authors find the right repository for their data, we maintain and regularly update a list of recommended open data repositories, which is also used more widely by the Nature Research journals and our publisher Springer Nature. Last year we also improved our support for institutional repositories. Continue reading
Scientific Data to publish a wider range of research advancing data sharing and reuse
Scientific Data is expanding the kinds of content it publishes, providing a richer forum for advances in open, reproducible science. Authors may now submit manuscripts under the following new formats:
The Analysis format can now be used to submit reports on new analyses or meta-analyses of existing data. Analyses should present particularly innovative examples of data reuse, and may be used to report compelling new findings and conclusions derived from published data. Analysis submissions are not required to use data previously published at Scientific Data, although submissions of this kind are encouraged. Analysis submissions should exemplify reproducible research by clearly describing all steps in the analysis, providing supporting source code, and explaining how and where others may access all underlying data.
The Article is a flexible format for presenting original reports on systems or techniques that clearly advance data sharing and reuse. This includes research on sharing, managing and processing scientific research data, as well as articles describing data repositories, standards and ontologies. Articles may also present sociological research on data sharing habits or perceptions, or the effectiveness of sharing policies. Continue reading
We’ve clarified our policies on institutional repositories
Reply
This week, we updated our data repository recommendations to clarify our existing support for institutional repositories. We have also made it easier for authors using these resources to submit manuscripts to Scientific Data.
Scientific Data now indexed by PubMed
Scientific Data’s content is now indexed by PubMed and freely available through PubMed Central (PMC), two interlinked services maintained by the US National Library of Medicine that are widely used by researchers in the biological and biomedical sciences. We have also been approved for indexing in the more selective MEDLINE database and our content will be progressively incorporated into MEDLINE in the near future. Continue reading
Scientific Data now inviting submissions from the social sciences
Today, we are pleased to announce our first Advisory Panel and Editorial Board members from the social sciences. Researchers from these communities are now invited to submit Data Descriptor manuscripts describing quantitative datasets, particularly those that may be of use for integrative analyses that stretch across the traditional boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Continue reading
Scientific Data’s first publications
Earlier this month, Scientific Data published its first two Data Descriptors. These pre-launch articles recently cleared peer-review and we have decided to publish them before our formal launch in May 2014. They were published using a simplified article template, but they will be transferred to our more feature-rich publication platform in May, and will retain the same citation information and DOIs.
Both of these works present valuable, previously unpublished datasets. We are also actively considering Data Descriptor manuscripts that expand on previous publications (e.g. releasing important datasets in more detail, or making them more reusable), and we expect to have some excellent examples of these types of follow-up works for our launch in May.
New Advisory and Editorial Board pages
We recently improved our webpages about our Editors, Editorial Board and Advisory Panel, to help you better explore the scientists, funders, librarians, and curators working with and supporting Scientific Data. These pages are now accessible through a new Advisory and Editorial Board landing page, which provides a brief summary of the different roles these groups play at Scientific Data.
Importantly, our Editorial Board Members now have their own page. Board Members are listed alphabetically and divided into two broad categories, “Biological Sciences” and “Earth, Environment and Ecological Sciences”, with their areas of expertise listed below their name and affiliation. We hope this new layout will help you browse the list and find Editorial Board Members within your area of research.
Please take a look: Scientific Data’s Editorial Board