Call for Survey Responses: Understanding Dataset Publication Trends in Aquatic Sciences

As journals increasingly mandate public data deposition, researchers in the aquatic sciences depend on information about best practices for data sharing. Datasets are now required or expected by many journals. Specifically, upon the acceptance of an article, authors are now often expected to have the data corresponding to the article uploaded as a dataset with its own digital object identifier (DOI) in a publicly accessible data repository. There are many options for data repositories that host these publicly available datasets. Authors can, for example, select an institutional repository, a non-profit independent repository, or a repository run by government agencies and sub-programs within those agencies in many nations. Ten years after the announcement of the FAIR data standards (Wilkinson et al. 2016), it's time to take a closer look at where, how, and why researchers are publishing their data (Fig. 1). There are excellent resources available that outline the nuts and bolts of how to publish data (Soranno 2019). However, even with the process outlined, the aquatic sciences community, especially early career scientists, are left with many questions moving forward. What makes a dataset high-quality? Which types of datasets are the most widely cited, and which are the most widely used? What can authors do to make sure their data are useful to others? This project seeks to answer these questions by surveying authors in the aquatic sciences from multiple career stages about their experience making data publicly available and summarizing the needs of the community moving forward. We are currently seeking responses to a survey exploring where, how, and why researchers choose to publish their datasets. The findings will help guide community discussions, editorial policies, and training resources within the aquatic sciences. The questions in the survey are specifically intended for authors or co-authors of peer-reviewed publications who have uploaded at least one dataset with a DOI that is now housed in any publicly available data repository. Some questions in the survey target the logistics of data submission, while other questions explore the perceptions and motivations behind data submission to publicly available data repositories. We seek responses from researchers at all career stages, from students and early career researchers who have just published their first dataset to experienced scientists who have published many datasets over the course of their careers. The survey is live and can be accessed using the following link: https://odu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7ajrClVTJIGYsSi or the QR code (Fig. 2). The survey is anonymous, and no one will be able to link your answers back to you. Please do not include your name or other information that could be used to identify you in the survey responses. Early responses are particularly valuable and will help inform the next stages of the project, so we encourage participants to complete the survey as soon as possible. Conversations with Jim Cloern, Pat Soranno, Dana Ransby, Erin Peck, and Rita Franco-Santos were helpful during the creation of the survey. This initiative is part of the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship, supported by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). We thank Paul Kemp, the program director of the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship. Finally, we thank Dale and Ross Cole for their generosity in establishing this fellowship and maintaining connections with Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellows past and present.