Slides presented at the Workshop: A National Approach to Open Research Data in Ireland held at the National Library of Ireland, 8th September 2017.

1. A National Approach to Open
Research Data in Ireland:
Publishers and RDM
8 September 2017
Rebecca Grant, Research Data
Manager, Springer Nature

2. 1
Springer Nature is a leading research, educational and professional publisher, providing
quality content to our communities through a range of innovative platforms, products
and services.
Home to brands including Springer, Nature Research, BioMed Central, Palgrave
Macmillan and Scientific American.
As the leading open access publisher, we see the rise of open research in all its
manifestations as one of the major forces reshaping the way that researchers
communicate and collaborate to advance the pace and quality of discovery.
Our focus is on investing in and creating tools, services or training that help the research
community to understand and utilise new ideas and concepts.

3. 2
What challenges do researchers face?
• 64% unsure about open licensing of research data1
• 56% do not use a metadata standard2
• 54% would like more guidance complying with funder policies1
• 54% do not have enough time to make data available1
• 45% unaware of a repository for some of their data3
• 39% uncertain about meeting costs of making data open1,2
1. Treadway et al. (2016). figshare. https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4036398.v1 (n= 2061) (& image credit CC BY)
2. Tenopir et al. (2011). PLoS ONE 6(6): e21101. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021101 (n=1315)
3. Nature Publishing Group (2014). figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/ m9.figshare.1234052 (n=387)

4. 3
• Content types e.g. data articles and journals
• Credit and incentives e.g. data citation and data articles
• Encouraging reuse e.g. open licences
• Data quality e.g. data peer review
• Data discoverability e.g. linking data to publications; supporting repositories
• Raising awareness e.g. editorials, outreach
• Guidance and policy e.g. information for authors, policy harmonisation
• Technology e.g. platform developments, repository integration and other
partnerships
What is Springer Nature doing?

5. 4
From our data journal portfolio: Scientific Data
Scientific Data
Part of the Nature Research Group, Scientific
Data is an open-access, online-only journal
for descriptions of scientifically valuable
datasets.
The articles, known as Data Descriptors,
combine traditional narrative content with
curated, structured descriptions (metadata)
of the published data to provide a new
framework for data-sharing and –reuse.
• Broad scope covering physical, life and
quantitative social sciences
• In-house metadata curation
• Data-focused peer-review process
• Supports community data repositories
• Integrated submission of data to general
repositories

6. 5
http://www.springernature.com/gp/group/data-policy

7. 6

8. 7
Research Data Support helpdesk @Springer Nature
Support for editors:
• Identifying and implementing a data policy
• Identifying data repositories for their audience(s)
• Dealing with peer review of sensitive/human data
• Good practice for data-literature integration
Support for authors:
• Information on the data policy of their target journal(s)
• Identifying and using data repositories
• Compliance with funders’ and institutions’ data sharing policies
• Data reporting standards
http://www.springernature.com/gp/group/data-policy/helpdesk

9. 8
Helping researchers find the right repository
• Recommended repositories list (>80 repositories)
• http://www.springernature.com/gp/group/data-policy/repositories
What makes a good data repository?
Data repositories for data supporting peer-reviewed publications generally should:
I. Ensure long-term persistence and preservation of datasets
II. Be recognized by a research community or research institution
III. Provide deposited datasets with stable and persistent identifiers, such as Digital
Object Identifiers (DOIs)
IV. Allow access to data without unnecessary restrictions
V. Provide a clear license or terms of use for deposited datasets

10. 9
Policies need checks and enforcement to be robust and effective1 but
not all researchers and journals have easy access to tools and
resources to share data easily2,3.
To help Springer Nature authors and journals follow good practice in
sharing and archiving of research data, we’re piloting optional data
deposition and curation services.
The services provide secure and private submission of data files, which
are then curated and managed by the Springer Nature Research Data
team for public release.
http://www.springernature.com/gb/group/data-policy/data-support-services
Springer Nature Data Support Services pilot
1. Vines, T. H. et al. Mandated data archiving greatly improves access to research data. FASEB J. fj.12–218164– (2013). doi:10.1096/fj.12-218164
2. Treadway et al. (2016). figshare. https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4036398.v1 (n= 2061)
3. Tenopir et al. (2011). PLoS ONE 6(6): e21101. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021101 (n=1315)

11. 10
Before editing – researcher’s electronic lab notebook

12. 11
Now includes
• Link to associated, peer-reviewed
publication
• Consistent titles and author names
• Clear citation information
• Files preview-able in browser
• Metadata for each file in the archive
• Contextual information
• Clear license/terms of use
• Dataset description/abstract
• Rich usage statistics
After data curation

13. 12

14. 13
https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups/data-policy-standardisation-and-implementation
Community and stakeholder engagement via RDA
Co-chairs:
Natasha Simons (ANDS), Simone Taylor
(Wiley), David Kernohan (Jisc), Iain
Hrynaszkiewicz (Springer Nature)
Proposed group activities can build on and
be informed by research carried by Jisc,
ongoing activities of ANDS and work of
Springer Nature on data policy

15. 14
July 2017
Thank you!
Email: rebecca.grant@springernature.com
research.data@springernature.com
Website: http://go.nature.com/ResearchDataServices
Twitter: @beck_grant
@springernature
Come to Better Science through Better Data 25
October 2017, London: tickets now available at
http://tinyurl.com/y833areu