Integration of Data and Publications - Alliance for Permanent Access

Report on Integration of Data and Publications Grant Agreement no.: 261530
interlinking with journal publications. Project Dryad is one such example, the
establishment of DataCite in 2009 another one (both described in Chapter 4).
For the middle area in the pyramid, that of Data Selections, Processed Data and Data
Representations, several options exist. These can be cared for in the context of journals
or in the context of archives and databases, depending on the level of processing of the
data. Traditionally these kinds of data have been included in supplementary files to
journals and this custom is expected to grow further. Increasingly, we can expect more
and more journal policies to raise the level of required data selection and processing
(example: Cell) and no longer accept anything and everything in the supplemental
materials but instead pose restrictions on volume and format along the criteria of
relevancy and manageability.
For the apex in this pyramid, data interpretations are included in a publication; there
are no indications of paradigm shifts. But it is likely that data and publications will
integrate further, at different levels and in more novel ways. There will be new
innovations in the way the data are displayed and presented that confirm certain
analyses and conclusions. Examples given in this chapter concern data made interactive
from within the article via protein viewers and genome viewers.
3.11. Diverging and Converging Trends.
We see diverging trends taking place as well as converging trends in the way publishers
are handling the increasing amount of data alongside articles. This is probably a strong
indication that this area is in transition at the moment.
A clear example of diverging trends can be found in:
• Journals have more and more data submitted in supplementary files, and most of
the journals accommodate this, also for a growing variety of file formats. At the
same time, the first few examples now exist where journals could no longer
handle this flow in view of the sheer volume and hence have stopped accepting
supplementary files or have put limitations for them.
Whereas a converging trend is emerging in these areas:
• More journals support the principles of data sharing and data availability and
press (or even mandate) authors to deposit data in public archives and to follow
the conventions for this in their subject area.
• More publishers collaborate with community endorsed, public archives to make
data and publications inter-linkable and citable, thereby endorsing the Brussels
declaration in practice, and with positive effects on the integration of data and
publications, their findability, discoverability, interpretability and re-use.
• A growing number of publishers offer services to present data in more
sophisticated and even interactive ways, that increase their interpretability and
hence their re-use further.
Opportunities for Data Exchange (ODE) –www.ode-project.eu 59