BU Research Blog

Many journals either encourage or require that the data supporting published outputs be deposited in an open research data repository. If you’re looking at options for publishing your research, here are a few things to consider.

Why should I make my data open access?

Open data aims to increase trust in scholarly works by improving transparency and enabling research findings to be tested and reproduced. It can also lead to new research because the data can be used to inform new studies and prevent wasted effort by reducing duplication. Finally, research data is citable, so you can receive credit for the work put into creating it.

How do I find out what the publisher requires?

You will need to read the author information pages for your chosen journal. Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley have examples of the different data requirements covered by their journals. These range from encouraging data deposits to mandating them as a condition of manuscript submission.

Where should I deposit my data?

You should check to see whether your chosen journal (or funder) specifies a particular repository. Most recommend disciplinary repositories recognised by those academic communities, and where these aren’t available, a generalist repository. You can search for repositories by discipline using the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data). Some repositories charge for data submission, so you’ll need to take this into account if applying for funding.

Can I deposit data in BU’s data repository, BORDaR?

Yes! There isn’t a charge, but you do need to check what the journal requirements are first. Even when data is published in an external repository, it’s required that a record is created in BORDaR linking to the data. That way your data will be visible to anyone browsing the repository. If you’ve had data published in an external repository, please let the library team know via the email below.

Where do I go for help and advice?

Visit the Library’s Research Data Management guide or email bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Dan Bailyes

Faculty Librarian (FMC) and LLS lead for Research Data Management (RDM)