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Regular readers of this blog will be aware that Data Notes allow researchers to provide human readable context about their datasets in the form of a peer reviewed article.  Professor Jürgen Bajorath holds the Life Science Informatics chair at the University of Bonn and has published three F1000Research Data Notes to date.  We asked him about his experiences of data sharing and publication in the field of Chemical Biology.

 

 

 

 

What are you currently working on?

Among other research activities, we conduct systematic compound data mining efforts to elucidate compound promiscuity patterns and explore structure-activity relationships on a large scale.

 

What is your personal experience with accessing datasets generated by other groups for your own work?

Data (set) accessibility is generally difficult. There currently are no generally accepted data sharing practices in the field.

 

To date, you have published three data notes with F1000Research.  What is it about the data note format that appeals to you?

Data notes in F1000Research provide a specialized forum for the communication of data sets and related issues. In combination with data sharing platforms such as ZENODO, the use of which is supported by F1000Research, data sharing can be effectively supported and data (set) descriptions become widely visible and transparent. For research groups supporting a culture of data sharing this provides opportunities to communicate data sets to a much wider audience than has been possible before.

 

How can journals help chemical biology researchers share their data?

Journals will ultimate need to implement and adhere to common data deposition and communication practices, regardless of their specific publication standards and criteria. From a practical perspective, this is far from being a trivial task, but a condition sine qua non for raising the bar and improving the reproducibility an hence quality of research in chemical biology and other fields. Data notes and related article formats provide an important step into this direction and will raise further awareness of these issues.

 

What has been your overall experience as an F1000Research author?

I’m a supporter of open peer review formats and have been impressed with the efficiency and quality of editorial procedures at F1000Research we have been experiencing thus far. Open review formats will not solve all the problems associated with the peer review process facing a general inflation of submissions. However, open review will ultimate help to increase the quality of reviews (and submissions) and provide much needed alternatives for rapid communication of scientific results.

 

There’s never been a better time to try the Data Note format for yourself, F1000Research is currently waiving APCs for Data Notes.