Data articles are peer-reviewed, citable papers that describe research data. In contrast to other article types, they do not contain theories, results or conclusions.Data articles enhance visibility and potential for reuse of the research data. They allow authors to get published, citable credit for their work in generating research data, and allows readers to focus on the data without being swayed by results.
The datasets themselves must be freely accessible to readers and accessible during the peer-review process. Publishing a data article does not prevent an author from publishing research papers using that data at a later date.
A number of Springer Nature journals offer some form of data article (for example, BMC Genomic Data and the Discover Journal Series), and we publish two dedicated broad scope data journals: Scientific Data and BMC Research Notes.
For information on other subject specific journals publishing data articles, please look at the article types in the journal’s Instructions for Authors. For further information or enquiries about data publishing, please contact us.