Data Journals

What is a data journal? 

Data journals offer a route for the peer review of research data. Data journals are a format of publication that focuses on the dataset rather than the conventional research article. Through publication, data creators can get credit for their work but for this to happen efficiently, a dataset must be both citable and accessible for peer review, like traditional publications. 

Data journals do not store or publish the actual datasets. A data journal publishes papers that fully describe the content of a dataset or datasets including details of how the data were generated, transformed, validated, the software used, file formats, limitations of use, etc. The main difference between a scientific paper and a data paper is that a data paper describes the dataset and its potential. It does not answer a particular question so there is no requirement for novel analyses or groundbreaking conclusions. 

Datasets being described in data journals must also be archived and accessible through a recognised data centre, such as those in the NERC Environmental Data Service (EDS). 

What opportunities do data journals present? 

Often those directly involved with the data collection or transformation are placed further down the authorship list or just acknowledged in a research paper. Data journals present opportunities for those directly involved with the data collection to publish as lead author, increasing scientific outputs. 

Published datasets held by the NERC Data Centres count as scientific outputs in their own right and can be cited. Data journals offer an opportunity to further increase published and citable outputs, and many data journals have high impact factors.