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Data Publication

Information on the publication of research data
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Image: Roman Gerlach

Research data publication

In addition to the traditional supplement to a journal article, researchers are increasingly offered a direct way to provide a scientific community with data as citable publications independently from research results.

This contributes significantly to an increased transparency and reproducibility of scientific results that enables other researchers to re-use (information in GermanExternal link) their data in the interest of sustainability. Research data can be published via data journals or data repositories which primarily aim on long-term storage and availability of data.

Data Journals

The list below is based on a collection maintained by Sarah Callaghan from The British Atmospheric Data CentreExternal link, but has been extended with what we found through internet searches (last updated 01/03/2022). The list is probably not complete. If you are aware of any other data journal, please let us know.

  • Biology, Medicine, Life Sciences

    Biodiversity Data Journal (Pensoft)External link

    community peer-reviewed, open-access, comprehensive online platform to accelerate publishing, dissemination and sharing of biodiversity-related data of any kind

    Open Data Journal for Agricultural ResearchExternal link

    The Open Data Journal for Agriculture Research (ODjAR) acts as a central hub for storing, curating and publishing the data sets as a resource for the future where publications and their authors get appropriate credit through citations and digital object identifiers for future reference. Many different data sets exist, that are of value and deserve accreditation: experimental data, surveys, model inputs, model outputs, derived indicators and statistics, data assimilation and mark-ups, maps, measured data points.

    Genomics DataExternal link

    To offer improved discoverability and accessibility to our authors' research, Elsevier is proud to announce the absorption of Genomics Data into Data in Brief, our multidisciplinary peer-reviewed data journal. Together, the journals will be able to better serve the genomics community as a unified outlet for your data.

    BMC Research Notes (BioMed Central, Springer)External link

    open access journal publishing all fields of biology and medicine short publications, case series, incremental updates to previous work also encourages the publication of software tools, databases, data sets

    Ecological Archives (Ecologigal Society of America (ESA))External link

    publishes materials that are supplemental to articles that appear in the ESA journals publishes peer-reviewed data papers with abstracts digital, Internet-accessible form kinds of publications: appendices, supplements, and data papers

    Biomedical Data Journal (BMDJ)External link

    Biomedical Data Journal (BMDJ) is an open access journal aiming to facilitate the presentation, validation, use, and re-use of datasets, with focus on publishing biomedical datasets that can serve as a source for simulation and computational modelling of diseases and biological processes.

    EcologyExternal link

    Ecology publishes articles that report on the basic elements of ecological research. Emphasis is placed on concise, clear articles documenting important ecological phenomena. The journal publishes a broad array of research that includes a rapidly expanding envelope of subject matter, techniques, approaches, and concepts: paleoecology through present-day phenomena; evolutionary, population, physiological, community, and ecosystem ecology, as well as biogeochemistry; inclusive of descriptive, comparative, experimental, mathematical, statistical, and interdisciplinary approaches.

    GigaScience (BioMed Central)External link

    online open access open-data for life and biomedical sciences novel publication format: links standard manuscript publication with an extensive database hosting all associated data provides data analysis tools and cloud-computing resources

    Journal of Open Public Health Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    Open Health Data features peer-reviewed data papers describing health datasets with high reuse potential. We are working with a number of specialist and institutional data repositories to ensure that the associated data are professionally archived, preserved, and openly available. Equally importantly, the data and the papers are citable, and reuse will be tracked.

  • Earth Sciences, Geography

    Geoscience Data Journal (Wiley)External link

    open access platform, scientific peer-review, online-only journal publishes short data papers cross-linked to, and citing, datasets that have been deposited in approved data centers

    Earth System Science Data (Copernicus Publications)External link

    online peer-reviewed, open-access data publishing journal Dataset are annotated with standard metadata and made available through certified data center/repository

    IUCrData (International Union of Crystallography)External link

    IUCrData is a peer-reviewed open-access data publication from the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). This innovative publication aims to provide short descriptions of crystallographic datasets and datasets from related scientific disciplines, as well as facilitating access to the data. The primary article category is Data Reports; these describe crystal structures of inorganic, metal-organic or organic compounds. Information on each crystal structure includes the crystallographic data (CIF and structure factors), a data validation report, figures and a text representation of the data.

    International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures ResearchExternal link

    IJSDIR is a peer-reviewed journal that is operated by Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The aim of the Journal is to further the scientific endeavour underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). We welcome a range of submission types, including full-scientific articles, notes from the field and geospatial data set descriptions.
    The Journal is published openly and free of charge. It adheres to the Open Archives Initiative, which aims to facilitate the dissemination of electronic content.

  • Physics, Chemistry

    Journal of Physical and Chemical Research Data (AIP Publishing LLC)External link

    published online daily to provide critically evaluated physical and chemical property data, fully documented as to the original sources and the criteria used for evaluation, preferably with uncertainty analysis. The journal is not intended as a publication outlet for original experimental measurements such as those normally reported in the primary research literature, nor for review articles of a descriptive or primarily theoretical nature

    Journal of Chemical and Engineering DataExternal link

    The Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data is a monthly and peer-reviewed journal devoted to the publication of data obtained from both experiment and computation, which are viewed as complementary. The scope of this Journal includes thermophysical properties obtained from quantum chemistry, molecular simulation, and molecular mechanics calculations as well as reviews of experimental techniques. The Journal publishes Articles and Reviews. In addition, Comments, Book Reviews, and Additions and Corrections are published. 

    Chemical Data CollectionsExternal link

    The research data will be published as 'data articles' that support fast and easy submission and quick peer-review processes. Data articles introduced by CDC are short self-contained publications about research materials and data. The journal welcomes submissions focusing on (but not limited to) the following categories of research output: spectral data, syntheses, crystallographic data, computational simulations, molecular dynamics and models, physicochemical data, etc.

    Atomic Data and Nuclear Data TablesExternal link

    Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables presents compilations of experimental and theoretical information in atomic physics, nuclear physics, and closely related fields. The journal is devoted to the publication of tables and graphs of general usefulness to researchers in both basic and applied areas. Extensive and comprehensive compilations of experimental and theoretical results are featured. Supports Open Access.

    Nuclear Data SheetsExternal link

    The Nuclear Data Sheets are current and are published monthly. They are devoted to compilation and evaluations of experimental and theoretical results in Nuclear Physics. Supports Open Access.

  • Robotics

    The International Journal of Robotics Research - Data Papers (Sage Publications)External link

    publishes peer reviewed data papers and multimedia extensions alongside articles

  • Humanities, Archeology

    Journal of Open Archaeology Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) features peer reviewed publications describing humanities data or techniques with high potential for reuse. Humanities subjects of interest to JOHD include, but are not limited to Art History, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, etc. Data that crosses one or more of these traditional disciplines are highly encouraged.

    Journal of Open Humanities Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) features peer reviewed publications describing humanities data or techniques with high potential for reuse. Humanities subjects of interest to JOHD include, but are not limited to Art History, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, etc. Data that crosses one or more of these traditional disciplines are highly encouraged.

    Journal of Digital History External link

    The Journal of Digital History (JDH) is a joint initiative of the Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg and the De Gruyter publishing group. The journal is intended to serve as a forum for critical debate and discussion in the field of digital history by offering an innovative publication platform and promoting a new form of data-driven scholarship and of transmedia storytelling in the historical sciences.

  • Social Sciences, Economics

    Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social SciencesExternal link

    The Research Data Journal is a digital-only open access journal, which documents deposited data sets through the publication of data papers. Data papers are scholarly publications of medium length containing a non-technical description of a data set and putting the data in a research context. The journal concentrates on the social sciences and the humanities, covering history, archaeology, language and literature in particular. The publication languages are English and Dutch.

    Journal of Statistical SoftwareExternal link

    Established in 1996, the Journal of Statistical Software publishes articles, book reviews, code snippets, and software reviews on the subject of statistical software and algorithms. The contents are freely available on-line. Statistical software is the key link between statistical methods and their application in practice. Software that makes this link is the province of the journal, and may be realized as, for instance, tools for large scale computing, database technology, desktop computing, distributed systems, the World Wide Web, reproducible research, archiving and documentation, and embedded systems. We attempt to present research that demonstrates the joint evolution of computational and statistical methods and techniques.

    Journal of Economics and StatisticsExternal link

    The Journal of Economics and Statistics publishes papers in all fields of economics and applied statistics. A specific focus is on papers combining theory with empirical analyses. Papers providing conclusions for economic policy in Europe are particularly welcome. Nevertheless, distinguished papers dealing exlusively with economic theory, empirical models, or economic history, will not be excluded from consideration. The section Data Observer presents articles on data sets available for empirical research and institutions providing research data. The journal also publishes special issues, short comments, and book reviews.

  • Psychology

    Journal of Open Psychology Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Psychology Data (JOPD) features peer reviewed data papers describing psychology datasets with high reuse potential. Data papers may describe data from unpublished work, including replication research, or from papers published previously in a traditional journal. We are working with a number of specialist and institutional data repositories to ensure that the associated data are professionally archived, preserved, and openly available.

  • Software

    Journal of Open Source SoftwareExternal link

    The Journal of Open Source Software is a developer friendly, open access journal for research software packages. 

  • Engineering Sciences

    ing.gridExternal link

    FAIR Data Management in Engineering Sciences. The journal welcomes contributions from all engineering subject areas. Moreover, the journal recognizes connections and common practices across all subdisciplines of the engineering community and encourages active exchange of experiences.

  • General

    F1000Research (F1000 Research Ltd., Science Navigation Group)External link

    open access journal for life scientists, immediate publication, transparent peer review (post-publication) and full data deposition and sharing All kinds of scientific work-documentation are accepted, Data articles are citable

    Dataset Papers in Science (Hindawi Publishing Corporation)External link

    peer reviewed, open access journal that publishes dataset papers in a wide range of subjects in science and medicine

    Data Science Journal (Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of the International Council for Science (ICSU))External link

    peer-reviewed, open access publishing papers on the management of data and databases in Science and Technology. descriptions of data systems, their publication on the internet, applications and legal issues. publishes data or data compilations, online simulations, databases, and other experiments

    Scientific Data (Nature Publishing)External link

    open-access, online-only publication for descriptions of scientifically valuable datasets, initially focusing on the life, biomedical and environmental science communities

    Open research softwareExternal link

    peer-reviewed meta-journal describing research software, covers different aspects of creating, maintaining and evaluating open source research software

    Data in BriefExternal link

    Data in Brief is a open-access and peer-reviewed journal who welcomes submissions that describe data from all research areas.

    Data (Open Access Journal of Data in Science)External link

    Data is an open access journal on data in science, with the aim of enhancing data transparency and reusability. The journal publishes in two sections: a section on the collection, treatment and analysis methods of data in science; a section publishing descriptions of scientific and scholarly datasets (one dataset per paper). The journal is published quarterly online by MDPI. Open Access and peer-reviewed.

    PatternsExternal link

    Patterns is the home for data scientists and researchers in data-intensive sciences in both academia and industry. The journal is domain agnostic and offers breadth and depth across the spectrum of disciplines, including computational, physical, life, and social sciences, and the humanities.

    Journal of large-scale research facilities (JLSRF)External link

    The Journal of large-scale research facilities (JLSRF) publishes articles describing large-scale scientific equipment. This covers large-scale equipment from all scientific disciplines that is intended to be used by scientists who are not affiliated to the institution operating the facilities (dedicated user operation).

Information

Scientists at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and University Hospital Jena can receive funding for open access publications through the Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek (ThULB)External link.

Detailed information on the application process (German)External link and on open access publishingExternal link can be found on the websites of the ThULB.