Research Data in Core Journals in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics [2014]

Supplementary data files associated with this study, which takes a stratified random sample of articles published in 2014 from the top 10 journals in the disciplines of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, as ranked by impact factor. Sampled articles were examined for their reporting of original data or reuse of prior data, and were coded for whether the data was publicly shared or otherwise made available to readers. Other characteristics such as the sharing of software code used for analysis and use of data citation and DOIs for data were examined. The study finds that data sharing practices are still relatively rare in these disciplines’ top journals, but that the disciplines have markedly different practices. Biology shares original data at the highest rate, and physics shares at the lowest rate. Overall, the study finds that only 13% of articles with original data published in 2014 make the data available to others.