Data papers and Data Management
A topic that's come up a lot at this year's AGU meeting is data management. Many U.S. funding agencies, in particular NSF, are taking additional steps to ensure open data and effective data management policies. The suggestions that follow are based off my conversations at AGU and are U.S. centric. However, my impression is that these issues are relevant internationally as well. There are two ways in which EarthArXiv may be beneficial in the emerging focus on data management. We could support a "data" preprint, which would be a paper detailing a new dataset, its availability and policies, and potentially an overview of the methodology used to generate it. As a result, EarthArXiv would offer a citable reference paper for emerging datasets. I know that some journals already support data papers. My impression is that they are under utilized and we may benefit by also moving data papers to preprints, which are immediately available and are flexible in formatting. Another possible scenario that emerged is for EarthArXiv to also act as a data repository reference. Initially, this could be as simple as a web-based table suggesting permanent open repositories for scientists who have data needing a permanent home. Long term, maybe this evolves into a more interactive feature and automated submission of data to the repository. At this point, I wanted to start the discussion and ask two things in particular.
1.) Are there any counter arguments and/or opposition to supporting "data" papers?
2.) The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, Colorado, USA) will be hosting a workshop on related topics August 7-9, 2018. I hope to attend. Would anyone else be interested in going as well? I'm in contact with the organizers and will be happy to add anyone interested to the email list.
Thanks,
Tom
brandon Thu 4 Jan 2018 11:09AM
As mentioned in another thread, there's always room for a synthesis paper, or an extended abstract further describing a "data" artefact. These can be full of links to the relevant resources on figshare, dryad, etc.
I agree that EarthArXiv is intended for a certain type of resource and the community should not encourage....ramming a square peg through a round hole. :)
Jamie Farquharson · Sat 23 Dec 2017 2:24PM
My gut instinct would be to promote data sharing through existing dedicated platforms such as Figshare or Vimeo, with any supporting documentation being hosted on EarthArXiv. Especially in the early days of EarthArXiv, I think it is very important to have a clear and communicable focus: what exactly do we host and why? This is a typical question I encounter about the project. I feel that hosting data papers that are neither pre- or post-print would muddy the waters somewhat.