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Tomorrow is Open Data Day: an annual celebration of open data all over the world – this year, with a focus on open research data.  To mark this occasion, we are reaffirming our commitment to open data with a focus on data quality.  We believe, not only should research data no longer be relegated to a hard drive or supplementary file, but that data should be shared in a way that is most useful to science.  That is why we are calling on the various stakeholders in open data to engage with us on how best support researchers in this area.

Make your data noteworthy

Effective data sharing extends beyond depositing data in a repository.  As the drive for open data progresses, it is no longer simply enough for data to be legally and technically open. The approach to research data should be holistic with a focus on data quality and stewardship.  Enter: Data Notes.  Data Notes are intended to promote the reuse of datasets by providing a detailed description of a dataset; making it easier for other researchers to interpret and, thus, more likely use.  Data notes complement traditional research articles and benefit from focused peer review.  Data notes are also a great way to open up data from older research articles as well as share data that doesn’t quite fit in other papers – all while receiving credit for the work you have done.

The value of Data Notes was recently exemplified by an article published in PLOS One: Thaís R. Santiago and colleagues identified 92 expansin genes in the sugarcane genome, facilitated by a Data Note published by Riaño-Pachón and Mattiello last year on F1000Research. In describing their sugarcane dataset, Riaño-Pachón and Mattiello have enabled researchers like Santiago to identify and characterise new genes in this crop.

Like Riaño-Pachón and Mattiello, we encourage researchers to strengthen the value of their data by submitting a Data Note for publication.  We realise that data occurs on a spectrum, and welcome whatever data you may have whether it be computational, experimental, observational, curated, or something else entirely. The current call for Data Notes will extend until the end of the year. Submitting a Data Note will ensure a 50% discount on your next submission by mentioning ‘data noteworthy’ at submission.

An open call to the open community

We recognise that the importance of open data is growing, and we’re not alone working in this space – which is great because we have lots of ideas that we can’t champion on our own!  We’d like to take this opportunity to engage with data producers, data reusers, data managers, policy makers, repositories, librarians, publishers and anyone else who would like to get involved in helping define effective open data practises, the skills required to achieve these, and their benefits, and barriers.  If that sounds like you, please let us know you are interested by signing up here.

Watch this space as we shift our focus to quality data; from revisiting our data policies to engaging researchers with good data management and leveraging community specific data formats and standards.  Ultimately, our aim is to help researchers maximise the potential of their data by best enabling reuse.