We’re delighted to announce a joint effort between DataCite and FAIRsharing to improve, in collaboration with several leading publishers, the criteria used by journal publishers for the recommendation of research data repositories for the benefit of the broader research community.
The project
Researchers are increasingly asked by funder and journal publisher data policies to share the digital objects (datasets, software, workflows, pre-prints etc.) that underlie their publications. It’s therefore crucial that they receive guidance about where to deposit these data, and which metadata standards are relevant. Currently, different organizations maintain different lists of recommended (deposition) repositories and these are not aligned. A common list of repositories, chosen using the same criteria, would save editors/publishers time and provide authors with consistent guidance.
In this context, DataCite and FAIRsharing are carrying out a joint project to identify a set of criteria for the recommendation of research data repositories for the benefit of the broader research community. This activity builds on the work started in 2018 between publishers participating in the FORCE11 Data Citation Implementation Pilot (DCIP) (@https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.259), represented by Helena Cousijn, the FAIRsharing Force11 and Research Data Alliance WG, represented by Susanna-Assunta Sansone and Peter McQuilton, and major publishers and data journals (Cambridge University Press, eLife, Elsevier, EMBO Press, F1000, Oxford University Press’s GigaScience, PLOS, Springer Nature’s Scientific Data, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley) that were part of the DCIP and/or who are already working with FAIRsharing to interlink their data policies with recommended repositories and standards.
Next steps
The aim is to publish a final version before the end of the year. The resulting criteria will be implemented by FAIRsharing to enable publishers to start recommending repositories based on these criteria, and will be used by DataCite as input in the European FAIRsFAIR project.
About DataCite & FAIRsharing
DataCite is a leading global non-profit organization, that provides persistent identifiers (DOIs) with a focus on research data. DataCite’s portfolio of services provide the means to create, find, cite, connect, and use research. Based at the University of Oxford in the UK, FAIRsharing is a curated, informative and educational resource on data and metadata standards, inter-related to repositories and data policies. FAIRsharing guides consumers to discover, select and use these resources with confidence, and producers to make their resources more findable, more widely adopted and cited. Both organizations aim to advance and enable FAIR research data.
