How and where to publish your data paper?

Publishing data via a data journal is an option to be considered. Initiated by the biodiversity research community in 2010, it is now encouraged by the French National plan for open science (topic 2). A data paper (or data article) is a scientific publication submitted for peer assessment. The main goal is to describe one or more data sets to make them reusable. Here is a lecture on the subject presented by Inrae in 2017. Making data available sometimes clashes with the publisher’s economic model: some data journals are available with a subscription, others demand high APCs (see tables below).

Publication processes

The article features an accurate description of data sets: author, nature and format of the data set, goals and context of the research, methodology and process, date of production, context of use, etc. It does not feature any hypotheses nor conclusions. Date sets are attached to the article or are accessible from the warehouse where they have been deposited. Here is an example of a data paper.

The Lyon URFIST has developed a complete training programme for writing and publishing a data paper.

Choosing a data journal

The following list features general or thematic data journals with descriptions to help you identify those likely to accept your data.