Integration of Data and Publications - Alliance for Permanent Access

Report on Integration of Data and Publications Grant Agreement no.: 261530
good examples further being explained in the next Chapter about Libraries and Data
Centres. For most publishers, any system that uses DOI’s as persistent identifiers can be
incorporated in the workflow.
3.6. Data storage as a service by the journal
We know of at least one example where the journal offers storage facilities for primary
research data to the authors of their articles. In 2010 Thieme established, for its
chemistry journals, an easy process by which the authors can submit primary chemistry
data with their articles. Thieme, based in Stuttgart, works together with FIZ Karlsruhe
(who also host their publications platform) and the TIB National Technical Library in
Hannover. The process consists of 5 easy steps:
1. At the same time with the article the author submits the research data to
Thieme.
2. Thieme hosts the research data in a data center (FIZ Karlsruhe).
3. TIB assigns a DOI to the data.
4. At the same time the article is published the primary data are published as
independent entity but in connection with the article.
5. The article quotes the research data as reference items with the assigned DOI.
As their motivation for this new initiative, Thieme says in their press release 43 (link
http://www.thieme.de/SID-4BE1BD47-99107897/connect-en/tc_oct_06_09.html ):
In the field of chemistry, (…) data is accumulated by a variety of analytical,
spectroscopic or computer simulation methods. Thus far, the vast amount of data
lies scattered on the computers of scientists, who have produced the information.
As no central repository exists, no archival storage is possible at the moment.
Scientific results are solely published in journals – but not the primary data from
which those results originate. Due to the missing credit that working up such
data currently receives, primary data is often poorly documented, difficult to
access and not saved for the long term.
Dr. Susanne Haak, Managing Editor and responsible for the chemistry journals at
Thieme explains, “Access to primary data is a fundamental condition for research work,
particularly in the natural sciences.” Therefore, Thieme and experts from TIB have
developed a uniform structure for publishing primary data. Through structuring and
central data registration, a Germany-wide unique service of TIB, valuable knowledge
will be harnessed.
Since its inception at the end of 2009, the Chemistry journals of Thieme had 13 articles
with data files added, per article roughly of the size of 5 – 10 MB. The data is not
touched by Thieme, who simply collect them in ZIPfiles and check if the ordering of the
subfiles is logical in the context of the article. The data files cannot be included in the
43 Thieme press release http://www.thieme.de/SID-4BE1BD47-99107897/connecten/tc_oct_06_09.html
Opportunities for Data Exchange (ODE) –www.ode-project.eu 52