The document discusses researchers' perspectives on data publication based on a survey of 249 researchers. It finds that "data publication" has different meanings for researchers, including making data available in a repository, associating it with a traditional research paper, or associating it with a dedicated data paper. Researchers value peer review but do not immediately understand or value the concept of data publication itself. The document aims to better understand how researchers interpret and value data publication.
1. What does “data publication”
mean to researchers?
John Kratz & Carly Strasser
2. “…it [is] clear that scientists
in all fields endorse the
principle of data sharing as a
desirable norm of science.”
–Ceci SJ, 1988, Scientists’ attitudes toward data sharing.
Science, Technology, & Human Values 13: 45–52.
3. “…it is clear that something
is amiss in the academy.”
–Ceci SJ, 1988, Scientists’ attitudes toward data sharing.
Science, Technology, & Human Values 13: 45–52.
15. “Data publication” has
multiple meanings for
researchers…
Available in a repository
Associated with a traditional paper
Associated with a data paper
17. What does data publication
mean to researchers?
John Kratz
0000-0002-9610-5370
John.Kratz@ucop.edu
@john_kratz
Carly Strasser
000-0001-9592-2339
Carly.Strasser@ucop.edu
@carlystrasser
Editor's Notes
1988 paper by Stephen Ceci reflecting consensus in a survey done in 1985, almost 3 decades ago
and yet "it is clear that something is amiss in the academy" which was that no one is actually doing it
* 30 years later the situation has ceratinly improved, but really, the same thing is still amiss
* There are a lot of ways to approach this problem, but
One solution is to shift from talking about _sharing_ data by making it available, to _publishing_ it
analogy to publication in the scholarly literature
Cachet of publication rubs off on data
This solution has gotten a lot of traction over the last 5 years–
there are lots of initiatives, lots of different ideas about exactly how it should work, lots of players in this space– both new and established.
Much of this is based on an untested assumption that because researchers understand "data", and "publication" ,
"data publication" will make sense– but is that true? If so, what kind of sense?
How much of the cachet of publication do we really get?
Carly Strasser and I put an online survey up last spring about data publication
(as distinct from dissemination in general, which had been studied much more
directed specifically at researchers in science and social science.
We got not quite 250 responses
American
Academics
research roles: PIs,postdocs, and grad students
disciplines; Lots of biologists,others.
skew towards people who care about this stuff.
To answer “what does data pub mean?”…
* here's what they said:
*
* firstly, not an overwhelming majority on any item– nothing much higher than 2/3
* most popular is the not-**exclusively**-scholarly sense that it's just available
* peer review, which is fundamental to some models of data publication and certainly to scholarly publication is expected by less than 1/3.
* this is a jumble of parts; are respondents flailing around or are they assembling them together into coherent ideas or definitions of data publication?
same data
here, again, are the parts-
here's how they connect; thick edges connect parts that tend to be chosen together
i'll pull out three definitions here
Described in trad research
I would divide the rest- with no real statistical support- into two partially overlapping overlapping definitions
peer-reviewed data paper
deposit in a public database or repository
To an
if you're looking a someone's CV, how much is each of these things worth?
traditional papers as a baseline
permutations of data publication
scale of 1-5, darker is more valuable
highest data pub is much less than a traditional paper, which is to be expected
A data paper definitely adds weight
But peer review is the bigger factor
* even though peer review wasn't expected,, it was valued.
* Data publication can mean any of a few different things- at least two- sometimes to the same researcher.
* We shouldn't expect researchers to automatically understand or value data publications.