Working towards harmonised peer-review of controlled-access data at human data repositories

Scientific Data is exploring how peer-review mechanisms for sensitive human data can be improved. Here, we outline some of the initial feedback we received from leaders of human data repositories (HDRs), and some innovative alternatives to peer-review.  Read more

Request for comment on cross-publisher data repository guidelines

Springer Nature, the publisher of Scientific Data, has recently been working with several other publishers, brought together by FAIRsharing and DataCite, to develop a common set of guidelines that publishers could use when assessing and recommending data repositories to their authors.  Read more

Call for submissions: High-throughput 3D screening

Scientific Data is inviting submissions releasing and describing data from high-throughput screens employing cutting-edge 3D cell or tissue culture systems. Screens using a wide range of perturbations will be considered, including chemical libraries or functional genomic screens. Priority will be given to submissions that employ high-content imaging techniques, and which have particular value for methods development in this growing area.  Read more

Announcing the first members of our new Senior Editorial Board

Announcing the first members of our new Senior Editorial Board

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.  Read more

Call for submissions: Reproducible data processing

Scientific Data is inviting submissions that provide compelling examples of how portable computing technologies can be used to create transparent, reproducible descriptions of data processing workflows. Submissions considered for this collection should describe valuable research datasets that involve some form of computational processing in their production. Authors should provide source code for all data processing steps in a way that would allow others, including referees, to easily understand and execute all processing steps.  Read more

Call for submissions: Multiomics data

Scientific Data is inviting submissions that release and describe datasets from studies that employed multiple ‘omic’ profiling technologies, including, but not limited to, genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Submitted articles may be considered for inclusion in a special article collection to be published at the journal.  Read more

Author’s Corner: Revisiting the personalities of wild chimpanzees

Chimpanzee in a patch of sunlight in 2010

Early on in her behavioural observations of the chimpanzees at what is now known as Gombe National Park, Jane Goodall was struck by their personalities, which were as distinct as our own1. However, upon sharing her observations with a ‘respected ethologist’, she was told that, yes, animals differed in their behaviour, but that this was best ‘swept under the carpet’ (pp 11-12)2.  Read more