CLIO-DAP


Frequently Asked Questions

Version 1.2 - July, 2013


  1. Why deposit data?
  2. Where are data deposited?
  3. What is a trusted repository?
  4. Can everybody freely use my data?
  5. What kind of data can be deposited?
  6. What happens to my data after the deposit?
  7. Is the data set also peer reviewed?
  8. How are data reviews encouraged?
  9. Where are data reviews published?
  10. What additional work does a DAP entail for the author?
  11. What additional work does a DAP entail for the journal?
  12. What are the benefits of a DAP for the reader?

1. Why deposit data?

Research data are a valuable resource, usually requiring much time and money to be produced. Many data have a significant value beyond the original research. Sharing data encourages validation and debate and leads to new collaborations between data users and data creators.

Research funders increasingly adopt data sharing policies and encourage or oblige researchers to share research data sets, findings and outputs.

Depositing and sharing data with a specialist data repository ensures long-term preservation and back-up of data, rights management of data and the administration for data access.

2. Where are data deposited?

In principle there are two variants:

  1. The author submits the article and at the same time deposits the dataset in a trusted repository. The choice of the repository may be his, or the journal may work with a preferred repository, or the organization with which the author is employed or the funding agency may prescribe a specific data archive.
  2. The author submits article and data set to the journal. This will be the procedure if the journal requires a data review together with a peer-review of the article. In this case the journal will deposit the dataset or ask the author yet to do so.

3. What is a trusted repository?

A trusted digital repository is one whose mission is to provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its designated community, now and in the future.

It accepts responsibility for long-term maintenance of digital resources and has an organizational system that supports viability of repository and digital material

It supports commonly accepted conventions and standards to ensure ongoing management, access and security. See also Data Seal of Approval.

4. Can everybody freely use my data?

The basic idea is to share research data in a timely manner, with as few restrictions as possible. However, data repositories have various guidelines for management of data access rights. Most will require that secondary users use the data only in accordance with the end use licenses and acknowledge, in any publications, the original data creators, depositors or copyright holders.

The data protection issues are particularly complex; data depositors should consult their local archive for the most relevant information.

DANS stores the data in a permanent and sustainable manner, according to the guidelines of the international Data Seal of Approval. The data will be made available to other researchers under the conditions you specified. See the general License agreement for more juridical information about depositing data at DANS.

5. What kind of data can be deposited?

The notion of data in this context is very broad en comprises not only quantitative data but also qualitative data. Data files as SAS, SPSS, or Stata files are welcome, but also ASCII files are also acceptable as long as they are accompanied with setup files. Data sets in other formats are accepted as well. Also audio and video can be part of a data set.

Each data set should be well documented. Documentation files are integral to interpreting a data collection and should thoroughly explain the data collection. Examples of documentation files include code books, data collection instruments, summary statistics, project summaries, and bibliographies of publications pertaining to the data.

6. What happens to my data after the deposit?

After a data collection is deposited, a data archivist reviews the data and documentation, and approves the data collection for distribution and archives the data for long-term preservation.

As long as the article to which a data set is related, has not yet been published, the data is only accessible to the reviewers. When the article is published, the data set is also published, taking into account the restrictions the depositor has put on it.

7. Is the data set also peer reviewed?

This matter is at the discretion of the journal. CLIO-DAP proposes a lightweight DAP, which does not require a data review together with the peer review of the publication itself. It has turned out, that making this mandatory may considerably delay the publication process. However, a journal that adopts a DAP, is still free to decide to choose a more heavy procedure and combine both.

However, in the case of a light procedure, it not fair to require data submission without paying any attention to the quality at all. Therefore, we want to encourage the review in a later stage, for example by a researcher interested in the same subject and data. (S)he can easily obtain the data set, because it is clearly referenced in the publication. A data review can be posted as a scholarly blog, but, ideally, is published by a journal, just like a book review.

8. How are data reviews encouraged?

The way to promote data reviewing is through a data paper. Data papers are peer-reviewed scholarly publications that describe the published data sets and provide an opportunity to data authors to receive the academic credit for their efforts. A data paper does not need to be large. It should be based on a set of topics, which can be used also by the reviewers of the data set.

A data repository can even lighten the work by creating a customized template for each deposited data set, which contains already all metadata and empty spaces for the detailed description, which the author-depositor has to provide.

9. Where are data reviews published?

A data review may be part of the article review process and not separately published at all. If the data review is made afterwards, it may be published by the same journal in which the article has appeared, or in a special data-oriented journal, such as the Journal of World-Historical Information, which takes also data papers. Alternatively, the data archive where the data set has been deposited, may make the data paper and/or data review available.

10. What additional work does a DAP entail for the author?

As a rule the author has to submit the data set together with documentation. If the first submission fails to meet the standards of the data repository he will be asked to correct shortcomings and make a new submission.

In some cases he may be required to deposit the data in two or more different repositories, for example, because a funder requires the use of a national data archive and a journal collaborates with an other repository.

If a data paper is part of the DAP policy (see previous question), he will be invited to add such an extended documentation.

11. What additional work does a DAP entail for the journal?

The lightweight DAP as proposed entails a few extra communications:

  1. The journal receives a message from the repository when the data set has been correctly deposited.
  2. The journal must notify the repository when an article is published, whereupon the repository published the data set.
  3. If the journal wants to receive article plus data, the editorial staff may have to deposit the data set, unless agreed otherwise with the author (see above: Where are data deposited?).

12. What are the benefits of a DAP for the reader?

There is a long list of benefits for the reader, i.e. for each member of the scholarly community concerned, of which are the most important:

  • open scientific inquiry and verification of conclusions
  • replication, diversity of analysis and opinions
  • encourages the improvement and validation of research methods
  • facilitates research beyond the scope of the original project
  • promoting new research
  • avoiding duplicate data collection
  • increases the impact and visibility of research
  • provides important resources for education and training
  • contributes to a digital cultural heritage