New Reports on Data Archiving and Citation

Two new reports have been published that deal with data issues in research, from proper documentation and archiving, through use of data in research and publication, down to citation. The first is the brief but concise Lost Science: Protecting Data Through Improved Archiving by Karen E. Simmons (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EO370006/abstract). This short but on-point article uses concrete examples from NASA data to show what can happen when digital data isn't properly documented, when documentation and formatting standards aren't followed or change rapidly, and the potential loss to science and society at large when bountiful, important, and historic information is lost.

The second report is from the U.S. CODATA and the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI): Out of Cite, Out of Mind: The Current State of Practice, Policy and Technology for the Citation of Data (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/12/0/12_OSOM13-043/_article). From the abstract: "This report discusses the current state of data citation practices, its supporting infrastructure, a set of guiding principles for implementing data citation, challenges to implementation of good data citation practices, and open research questions." This is the second report on data citation issues from this group: the first, For Attribution-Developing Data Attribution and Citation Practices and Standards (2012), is available from the National Academies Press online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13564