Biodiversity Department, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Blvd Vancouver BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4.
FASEB J. 2013 Apr;27(4):1304-8. doi: 10.1096/fj.12-218164. Epub 2013 Jan 3.
The data underlying scientific papers should be accessible to researchers both now and in the future, but how best can we ensure that these data are available? Here we examine the effectiveness of four approaches to data archiving: no stated archiving policy, recommending (but not requiring) archiving, and two versions of mandating data deposition at acceptance. We control for differences between data types by trying to obtain data from papers that use a single, widespread population genetic analysis, structure. At one extreme, we found that mandated data archiving policies that require the inclusion of a data availability statement in the manuscript improve the odds of finding the data online almost 1000-fold compared to having no policy. However, archiving rates at journals with less stringent policies were only very slightly higher than those with no policy at all. We also assessed the effectiveness of asking for data directly from authors and obtained over half of the requested datasets, albeit with ∼8 d delay and some disagreement with authors. Given the long-term benefits of data accessibility to the academic community, we believe that journal-based mandatory data archiving policies and mandatory data availability statements should be more widely adopted.
科学论文所依据的数据现在和将来都应该让研究人员能够访问，但我们如何才能最好地确保这些数据可用呢？在这里，我们研究了四种数据归档方法的效果：没有规定的归档政策、建议（但不要求）归档，以及两种版本的在接受时强制数据提交。我们通过尝试从使用单一、广泛的群体遗传分析结构的论文中获取数据来控制数据类型之间的差异。在一个极端情况下，我们发现要求在稿件中包含数据可用性声明的强制性数据归档政策，与没有政策相比，几乎将找到数据的几率提高了近 1000 倍。然而，在政策不太严格的期刊上的归档率仅略高于完全没有政策的情况。我们还评估了直接向作者索取数据的效果，并获得了请求数据的一半以上，尽管有大约 8 天的延迟，并且与作者存在一些分歧。考虑到数据可访问性对学术界的长期好处，我们认为应该更广泛地采用基于期刊的强制性数据归档政策和强制性数据可用性声明。
