Beginning this month (March 2007), Nature Biotechnology is recommending that authors deposit raw data from proteomics and molecular-interaction experiments in a public database before manuscript submission to the journal. The reason for this recommendation? “The lack of raw data sets associated with proteomics and molecular-interaction papers is a long-standing and pernicious problem. It not only stymies the exchange, comparison and reanalysis of experimental results, but also inhibits the development of new algorithms and statistics that could improve the confidence in data and conclusions. In addition, it undermines the ability of referees to fully evaluate the quality of data supporting a manuscript’s conclusions, sometimes forcing them to assess results simply on ‘good faith’. Contrast this with the situation in genome research and structural biology, where there is an abundance of public data sets from DNA microarrays, genome sequencing and X-ray crystallography studies, and it is not difficult to understand why progress in proteomics has lagged.”

For further information and links to the public databases, see the full text of this editorial: Nature Biotechnology 25, 262 (2007); doi:10.1038/nbt0307-262b

See the authors’ and peer-reviewers’ website for a description of the Nature journals’ policies on data and materials availability, with links to relevant editorials.

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