Data papers serve as "a mechanism to incentivize data publishing in biodiversity science" and a means of supporting researchers who curate and manage data with a recognizable form of scholarly publishing. Unlike conventional research articles that report hypotheses and conclusions, a data paper has the primary purpose of describing a dataset, outlining its significance and the circumstances of its collection, and increasing the visibility and discoverability of the data, its authors and its originating organization.
During this 90-minute webinar, Dmitry Schigel, scientific officer at the GBIF Secretariat, and partners from three open-data publishers—Pensoft Publishers, GigaByte Journal and the Journal of Limnology—will discuss three current open calls for submisisons of data papers that use GBIF to the target mobilization of data from Northern Eurasia, about vectors of human disease and about species that inhabit or depend on freshwater.
Over the past decade, GBIF has worked with journal publishers to support and promote the preparation of data papers, leading to nearly 400 data papers that describe FAIR and open datasets freely accessible through its global infrastructure.
Agenda
| Time (CET/UTC+1) |
Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00–10:05 | Welcome | Daniel Noesgaard GBIF Secretariat |
| 10:05–10:25 | GBIF-mediated data and data papers | Dmitry Schigel GBIF Secretariat |
| 10:25–10:40 | Origins of data papers Biodiversity Data Journal and call for Northern Eurasia |
Lyubomir Penev Pensoft Publishers |
| 10:40–11:00 | Q&A | |
| 11:00–11:12 | Data papers about vectors of diseases (prerecorded video) |
Scott Edmunds GigaScience |
| 11:12–11:22 | Data papers about freshwater species | Diego Fontaneto Journal of Limnology |
| 11:22–11:30 | Q&A | |
| 11:30 | Closing remarks | Dmitry Schigel |
Watch recording
Questions and answers
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Asking on behalf of my colleague: I am an amateur scientist. I provide my personal, unpublished data for publication in GBiF through institution X. How will my author's footprint/rights be preserved after my data appear on GBiF (e.g., collector's name etc.)? | Two ways: through dataset authorship and through Darwin Core standard fields that preserve collectors’ name. As research data are not subject of copyright, in GBIF publishers can declare the "use rules" by choosing one of the three CC licenses, see https://www.gbif.org/terms |
| Another question on behalf of a different colleague: when looking at some records on GBiF I am often curious to know who identified a particular record or who verified this identification. Is this information accessible through GBiF and is it compulsory to submit additional data (e.g., det./vid.) with datasets? Thank you. | Possible, recommended, not obligatory |
| How can I archive my data to get a new doi? Does this mean that I should upload my final dataset back to GBIF? | While in principle possible, intentional data duplication in GBIF is not welcome. One possibility is to archive the final state of your data in one of the general repositories (examples: Zenodo, Dryad, there are many). The purpose of the final state DOI is to inform your paper's readers on the exact state of the data you ended up with, so the story is coherent. If data massaging you did improved the quality of the original data, feedback to the original data publisher will improve data quality at source. |
| …or this data doi will be given by a journal? | Can happen, but most often it is author's responsibility. GigaByte has GigaDB curation team and database who can issue a DOI for orphan supplementary data that does not have subject specific repository |
| How to choose the good journal that fits with our data paper? | Ease of working with, thematic match, APC price, IF, other factors - try our table here https://www.gbif.org/data-papers |
| When submitting a dataset with historical data, is there any parameter to mark these data non-actual (the habitat destroyed, the area built up or cut etc.) = locality does not exist anymore? Thank you. | A combination of precise location information https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/#location and narrative in https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/#dwc:habitat is probably the best to cover the historical state of the data. Collection date is essential, of course. |
| Lyubomir, Baltic countries were not on your list for institutional affiliation. Does it mean Baltic countries are kept off the North Eurasian "project"? Thank you | Papers are sponsored focusing on the countries Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. See detailed criteria https://www.gbif.org/news/B00TTCi85YIy3qNo5KXSM/call-for-data-papers-describing-datasets-from-northern-eurasia-extended |
| Is it possible to have personal technical support from the GBIF team to publish a data paper? | You will have support to publish your data on GBIF; regarding the data paper you should get some support from the journal where you intend to publish the data paper. For technical questions regarding data publication on GBIF, you can always contact helpdesk@gbif.org |
| I want to ask you, some examples of journals which accept data papers for publication? | You can find some examples in the table presented by GBIF here: https://www.gbif.org/data-papers |
| If the individual researchers choose BDJ as a data publisher (they belong to any institution) to publish dataset to GBIF, is it necessary to publish data paper to BDJ also? | No, no obligations about that. You can publish a data paper in BDJ only if you wish to do that. |
| Would it be possible to publish data papers from Ukraine later, after the deadline of 1 Dec? My colleagues and I want to publish however we are uncertain whether we could make it before 1Dec. | There is no decision on the extension of the call, it will depend on many factors, including how many slots are left. |
| Hello to all I am ... of the team of .... Please I did not understand well how to pass from the file download for the manuscript | Some more information on that here: https://riojournal.com/article/13088 |
| Until when the GBIF Secretariat will reimburse the fee for the data paper publication from the BID project? | Requests for pre-approval of reimbursement of Article processing charges must be submitted within the implementation period of the related project. Once granted, the pre-approval is valid for 12 months after the end of the project. |
| Please, explain again the process of converting metadata to manuscript | Here some more about that: https://riojournal.com/article/13088See also slides by Lyubomir |
| While training my workshop participants about the benefits of publishing data papers, I came across students/researchers who prefer to gather all their citation numbers in a particular DOI (hence higher citation number) in their main research paper rather than numbers spread across dataset, data paper, and research paper. Though I understand the purpose of citing a data paper and research paper is different, I see most people would prefer to gather all the citations in the "main" research paper hence not wanting to publish data paper. I would like to know everyone's opinion on this view! Thanks | The sum of citations of two different DOIs might be higher than citations of one only DOI ;). It is up to authors to decide if getting together into a lumped broader paper is more beneficial than a constellation of smaller data papers. They serve different purposes: analysis vs. visibility gain |
| Submission of the data of an undescribed species, or taxons which taxonomic status is still questionable. | It is possible to publish a dataset with persistent identifiers, and then add names after they are formally given under the Codes |
| Once we update a dataset in GBIF, can we add authors to the dataset too, that means, researchers that are involved in the collection of these new data? | Yes, but pay attention to common sense updates of the dataset. Is this, generally speaking, the same dataset as a result? This may help your decision. |
| So again, are datasets from LV and LT welcome or not within the present (sponsored) framework? Thank you. | See criteria of the call. The data should focus ON the target countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) in the Northern Eurasia call, but authors of such data can be from LV and LT, and will be sponsored. |
| I would like to have clarification that the data paper structure for the J. of Limn. is similar to the general structure of data papers for pensoft journals. | Yes, it is |