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Request For Comments on “Data Repository Selection: Criteria That Matter”

This post is a request for comments on the preprint Data Repository Selection: Criteria That Matter via this online form on behalf of the authors of the preprint (full list available there).

Background

At PLOS we have long advocated for and developed data policies to ensure that datasets, as well as other digital products associated with articles, are deposited and made accessible via appropriate repositories and platforms. Research questions, study design, and data all contribute to the full and accurate story of science. These policies are also, since 2016, informed by the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) Data Principles.

The organizations FAIRsharing and DataCite have joined forces with a group of publisher representatives (authors of this work, including PLOS) to propose a set of criteria that are important for the identification and selection of data repositories, which can be recommended to researchers when they are preparing to publish the data underlying their findings. 

This work aims to 

  • reduce complexity for researchers when preparing submissions to journals 
  • increase efficiency for data repositories that currently have to work with multiple publishers
  • simplify the process of recommending data repositories for publishers

This work aims to make the implementation of research data policies more efficient and consistent and improve approaches to data sharing by promoting the use of community-approved reliable data repositories. 

Researchers who generate and reuse data are key stakeholders in the research data lifecycle. However, the first target audience for this work is other journals and publishers, repository developers and maintainers, certification and evaluation initiatives, and other policymakers.  

We invite you to read the preprint that describes the work, its motivation, its relations to other initiatives, and provide feedback via this form

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