An increasing number of academic publishers are adding new requirements related to research data management into their requirements for authors.
Research data is everything that is collected or generated in the course of a research project and becomes the basis for scientific insights and conclusions obtained during the process of research. In most cases, academic publications are based on research data, which, depending on the represented area of research, can take on a variety of forms: tables, audiovisual material, software, etc. “Research data management“ is a term used to denote any actions performed on data during the study, when planning the study or after the study has been completed.
The requirements of academic publishers for research data management are most often related to ensuring the availability of the data on which the publication is based for re-analysis and further research. However, some publishers may also have requirements related to the presentation of data such as the requirement to implement the FAIR principles.
Where to look for information about the requirements of the publisher?
Most often, the requirements for the data on which the manuscript is based are listed along with other instructions for authors. For some journals they are placed on the same page of the publisher's website as all other requirements for authors (e.g. formatting or ethics), while for others they can be found on a separate page.
Some publishers have a unified research data management policy for all their journals, while others have a suite of several policies, which allows different data policies to be applied to different journals of the publisher.
In order to save VU academic community members' time, the VU Library website features a section containing brief summaries of the research data policies of eleven major academic publishers accompanied by a link to the relevant information provided on each publisher's website.
If you have any questions regarding the research data requirements of a particular journal, Dr. Gintė Medzvieckaitė from the Scientific Information and Data Division will be happy to offer consultation.
2023-10-09