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Data publication

Information on the publication of research data
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Image: Roman Gerlach

Publication of research data

Traditionally, research data can be published as a supplement to a publication, e.g. a journal article. However, independent and electronically citable publication offers a direct way of making research data available to a broad scientific community.

This contributes significantly to increased transparency and reproducibility of scientific results and enables other researchers to reuse the data. Research data can be published via data journals (see below) or data repositories, which ensure long-term preservation and availability of data.

Repositories

The aim of a data repository is to permanently secure research data and enable subsequent use. In many cases, the data in a repository is available to the public and can be used with the appropriate licences. A distinction is made between institutional, disciplinary and interdisciplinary types of repositories.

The re3data.orgExternal link portal offers extensive search and filter functions for finding a suitable repository for your research data.

In general, we recommend publishing research data in repositories specifically developed for your research field. These subject specific repositories provide more sophisticated functionalities (e.g. special search options) and support the data standards of their community.

Repository for Research Data Thuringia (REFODAT)

REFODAT is aimed at scientists in Thuringia who do not want to or cannot store their research data in a subject-specific repository. All data submissions to REFODATExternal link are supported by the editorial team to ensure general quality standards (e.g. FAIR principles). This service is available free of charge to all affiliates of universities in Thuringia. The long-term availability of REFODAT is guaranteed by the participating institutions (TKFDMExternal link, ThULBExternal link, HS-ITZExternal link).

Selecting a suitable repository

The following criteria, among others, should be taken into account when selecting a repository:

  • Long-term availability of the repository (certification if possible)
  • Assigning of persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI, URN)
  • Licences and rights of use

Data Journals

The following list was originally compiled by Sarah Callaghan of the British Atmospheric Data CentreExternal link. It was expanded through our own research (last amended on 24/06/2025). The list does not claim to be complete. We are happy to receive information on other data journals.

We generally recommend verifying the trustworthiness of any peer-reviewed open access journal that you are not familiar with before submitting your publications (e.g. with Directory of OA Journals: www.doaj.org)External link.

  • Biology, Medicine, Life Sciences

    Biodiversity Data Journal (Pensoft)External link

    community peer-reviewed, open-access, comprehensive online platform to accelerate publishing, dissemination and sharing of biodiversity-related data of any kind

    Open Data Journal for Agricultural ResearchExternal link

    The Open Data Journal for Agriculture Research (ODjAR) acts as a central hub for storing, curating and publishing the data sets as a resource for the future where publications and their authors get appropriate credit through citations and digital object identifiers for future reference. Many different data sets exist that are of value and deserve accreditation: experimental data, surveys, model inputs, model outputs, derived indicators and statistics, data assimilation and mark-ups, maps, measured data points.

    Genomics DataExternal link

    To offer improved discoverability and accessibility to our authors' research, Elsevier is proud to announce the absorption of Genomics Data into Data in Brief, our multidisciplinary peer-reviewed data journal. Together, the journals will be able to better serve the genomics community as a unified outlet for your data.

    BMC Research Notes (BioMed Central, Springer)External link

    open access journal publishing all fields of biology and medicine short publications, case series, incremental updates to previous work also encourages the publication of software tools, databases, data sets

    Ecological Archives (Ecologigal Society of America (ESA))External link

    publishes materials that are supplemental to articles that appear in the ESA journals publishes peer-reviewed data papers with abstracts digital, Internet-accessible form kinds of publications: appendices, supplements, and data papers

    Biomedical Data Journal (BMDJ)External link

    Biomedical Data Journal (BMDJ) is an open access journal aiming to facilitate the presentation, validation, use, and re-use of datasets, with focus on publishing biomedical datasets that can serve as a source for simulation and computational modelling of diseases and biological processes.

    EcologyExternal link

    Ecology publishes articles that report on the basic elements of ecological research. Emphasis is placed on concise, clear articles documenting important ecological phenomena. The journal publishes a broad array of research that includes a rapidly expanding envelope of subject matter, techniques, approaches, and concepts: paleoecology through present-day phenomena; evolutionary, population, physiological, community, and ecosystem ecology, as well as biogeochemistry; inclusive of descriptive, comparative, experimental, mathematical, statistical, and interdisciplinary approaches.

    GigaScience (BioMed Central)External link

    online open access, open-data for life and biomedical sciences novel publication format: links standard manuscript publication with an extensive database hosting all associated data provides data analysis tools and cloud-computing resources

    Open Public Health Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    Open Health Data features peer-reviewed data papers describing health datasets with high reuse potential. We are working with a number of specialist and institutional data repositories to ensure that the associated data are professionally archived, preserved, and openly available. Equally importantly, the data and the papers are citable, and reuse will be tracked.

    Open Data Journal for Agricultural ResearchExternal link

    Agricultural research uses and produces many relevant data sets in studying agricultural systems across the globe, through its efforts in investigating conditions of global food (in)security at different spatial scales (from regional to national to continental. The Open Data Journal for Agriculture Research acts as a central hub for storing, curating and publishing the data sets as a resource for the future where publications and their authors get appropriate credit through citations and digital object identifiers for future reference.

    Open Journal of BioresourcesExternal link (Ubiquity Press)

    The Open Journal of Bioresources (OJB) features peer-reviewed short papers helping researchers to locate and cite bioresources with high reuse potential. Making bioresources more openly discoverable has enormous benefits not only for the research community and the wider public, but for the producers of the bioresources as well. Both the resources and the OJB papers are citable and this will be tracked to provide authors with metrics on reuse and impact.

  • Geosciences, Geography

    Geoscience Data Journal (Wiley)External link

    open access platform, scientific peer-review, online-only journal publishes short data papers cross-linked to, and citing, datasets that have been deposited in approved data centres

    Earth System Science Data (Copernicus Publications)External link

    online peer-reviewed, open-access data publishing journal Dataset are annotated with standard metadata and made available through certified data center/repository

    International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures ResearchExternal link

    IJSDIR is a peer-reviewed journal that is operated by Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The aim of the Journal is to further the scientific endeavour underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). We welcome a range of submission types, including full-scientific articles, grades from the field and geospatial data set descriptions.
    The Journal is published openly and free of charge. It adheres to the Open Archives Initiative, which aims to facilitate the dissemination of electronic content.

    Geoscientific Model DevelopmentExternal link (Copernicus)

    Geoscientific Model Development (GMD) is a not-for-profit international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and public discussion of the description, development, and evaluation of numerical models of the Earth system and its components.

  • Physics, Chemistry

    Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data (AIP Publishing LLC)External link

    published online daily to provide critically evaluated physical and chemical property data, fully documented as to the original sources and the criteria used for review, preferably with uncertainty analysis. The journal is not intended as a publication outlet for original experimental measurements such as those normally reported in the primary research literature, nor for review articles of a descriptive or primarily theoretical nature

    Journal of Chemical and Engineering DataExternal link

    The Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data is a monthly and peer-reviewed journal devoted to the publication of data obtained from both experiment and computation, which are viewed as complementary. The scope of this Journal includes thermophysical properties obtained from quantum chemistry, molecular simulation, and molecular mechanics calculations as well as reviews of experimental techniques. The Journal publishes Articles and Reviews. In addition, Comments, Book Reviews, and Additions and Corrections are published.

    Chemical Data CollectionsExternal link

    The research data will be published as 'data articles' that support fast and easy submission and quick peer-review processes. Data articles introduced by CDC are short self-contained publications about research materials and data. The journal welcomes submissions focusing on (but not limited to) the following categories of research output: spectral data, syntheses, crystallographic data, computational simulations, molecular dynamics and models, physicochemical data, etc.

    IUCrData (International Union of Crystallography)External link

    IUCrData is a peer-reviewed open-access data publication from the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). This innovative publication aims to provide short descriptions of crystallographic datasets and datasets from related scientific disciplines, as well as facilitating access to the data. The primary article category is Data Reports; these describe crystal structures of inorganic, metal-organic or organic compounds. Information on each crystal structure includes the crystallographic data (CIF and structure factors), a data validation report, figures and a text representation of the data.

    Atomic Data and Nuclear Data TablesExternal link

    Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables presents compilations of experimental and theoretical information in atomic physics, nuclear physics, and closely related fields. The journal is devoted to the publication of tables and graphs of general usefulness to researchers in both basic and applied areas. Extensive and comprehensive compilations of experimental and theoretical results are featured. Supports Open Access.

    Nuclear Data SheetsExternal link

    The Nuclear Data Sheets are current and are published monthly. They are devoted to compilation and evaluations of experimental and theoretical results in Nuclear Physics. Supports Open Access.

    The Astrophysics Journal: Supplement SeriesExternal link (American Astronomial Society)

    ApJS publishes catalogues and large compilations of data that can be used as reference by the astronomical community. Publications in ApJS include descriptions of data capture, surveys, analysis techniques, astronomical interpretation, instrumentation, and software and computing.

  • Robotics

    The International Journal of Robotics Research - Data Papers (Sage Publications)External link

    publishes peer reviewed data papers and multimedia extensions alongside articles

  • Humanities, Archaeology

    Journal of Open Archaeology Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) features peer reviewed publications describing humanities data or techniques with high potential for reuse. Humanities subjects of interest to JOHD include, but are not limited to Art History, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, etc. Data that crosses one or more of these traditional disciplines are highly encouraged.

    Journal of Open Humanities Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) features peer reviewed publications describing humanities data or techniques with high potential for reuse. Humanities subjects of interest to JOHD include, but are not limited to Art History, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, etc. Data that crosses one or more of these traditional disciplines are highly encouraged.

    Journal of Digital HistoryExternal link

    The Journal of Digital History (JDH) is a joint initiative of the Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg and the De Gruyter publishing group. The journal is intended to serve as a forum for critical debate and discussion in the field of digital history by offering an innovative publication platform and promoting a new form of data-driven scholarship and of transmedia storytelling in the historical sciences.

    InternetExternal link Archaeology (Internet Archaeology)

    Internet Archaeology is the premier open access archaeology journal. The journal publishes quality academic content and explores the potential of digital publication through the inclusion of data, video, audio, images, visualisations, animations and interactive mapping. Internet Archaeology is international in scope - a journal without borders - and all content is peer-reviewed.

  • Social Sciences, Economics

    Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social SciencesExternal link

    The Research Data Journal is a digital-only open access journal, which documents deposited data sets through the publication of data papers. Data papers are scholarly publications of medium length containing a non-technical description of a data set and putting the data in a research context. The journal concentrates on the social sciences and the humanities, covering history, archaeology, language and literature in particular. The publication languages are English and Dutch.

    Journal of Statistical SoftwareExternal link

    Established in 1996, the Journal of Statistical Software publishes articles, book reviews, code snippets, and software reviews on the subject of statistical software and algorithms. The contents are freely available on-line. Statistical software is the key link between statistical methods and their application in practice. Software that makes this link is the province of the journal, and may be realised as, for instance, tools for large scale computing, database technology, desktop computing, distributed systems, the World Wide Web, reproducible research, archiving and documentation, and embedded systems. We attempt to present research that demonstrates the joint evolution of computational and statistical methods and techniques.

    Journal of Economics and StatisticsExternal link

    The Journal of Economics and Statistics publishes papers in all fields of economics and applied statistics. A specific focus is on papers combining theory with empirical analyses. Papers providing conclusions for economic policy in Europe are particularly welcome. Nevertheless, distinguished papers dealing exclusively with economic theory, empirical models, or economic history, will not be excluded from consideration. The section Data Observer presents articles on data sets available for empirical research and institutions providing research data. The journal also publishes special issues, short comments, and book reviews.

  • Psychology

    Journal of Open Psychology Data (Ubiquity Press Open Access)External link

    The Journal of Open Psychology Data (JOPD) features peer reviewed data papers describing psychology datasets with high reuse potential. Data papers may describe data from unpublished work, including replication research, or from papers published previously in a traditional journal. We are working with a number of specialist and institutional data repositories to ensure that the associated data are professionally archived, preserved, and openly available.

  • Software

    Journal of Open Source SoftwareExternal link

    The Journal of Open Source Software is a developer friendly, open access journal for research software packages.

    Journal of Open Research SoftwareExternal link

    The Journal of Open Research Software (JORS) features peer reviewed Software Metapapers describing research software with high reuse potential. These articles describe research software that is either developed in the course of empirical research or is explicitly designed to enable reproducible research.

    SoftwareXExternal link

    SoftwareX aims to inform researchers about software applications, tools and libraries with a (proven) potential to impact the process of scientific discovery in various domains. The journal is multidisciplinary and accepts submissions from within and across subject domains.

  • Engineering sciences

    ing.gridExternal link

    FAIR Data Management in Engineering Sciences. The journal welcomes contributions from all engineering subject areas. Furthermore, the journal recognises connections and common practices across all subdisciplines of the engineering community and encourages active exchange of experiences.

  • General

    F1000Research (F1000 Research Ltd., Science Navigation Group)External link

    open access journal for life scientists, immediate publication, transparent peer review (post-publication) and full data deposition and sharing All kinds of scientific work-documentation are accepted, Data articles are citable

    Dataset Papers in Science (Hindawi Publishing Corporation)External link

    peer reviewed, open access journal that publishes dataset papers in a wide range of subjects in science and medicine

    Data Science Journal (Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of the International Council for Science (ICSU))External link

    peer-reviewed, open access publishing papers on the management of data and databases in Science and Technology. descriptions of data systems, their publication on the internet, applications and legal issues. publishes data or data compilations, online simulations, databases, and other experiments

    Scientific Data (Nature Publishing)External link

    open-access, online-only publication for descriptions of scientifically valuable datasets, initially focusing on the life, biomedical and environmental science communities

    Data in BriefExternal link

    Data in Brief is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal who welcomes submissions that describe data from all research areas.

    Data (Open Access Journal of Data in Science)External link

    Data is an open access journal on data in science, with the aim of enhancing data transparency and reusability. The journal publishes in two sections: a section on the collection, treatment and analysis methods of data in science; a section publishing descriptions of scientific and scholarly datasets (one dataset per paper). The journal is published quarterly online by MDPI. Open Access and peer-reviewed.

    PatternsExternal link

    Patterns is the home for data scientists and researchers in data-intensive sciences in both academia and industry. The journal is domain agnostic and offers breadth and depth across the spectrum of disciplines, including computational, physical, life, and social sciences, and the humanities.

    Journal of large-scale research facilities (JLSRF)External link

    The Journal of large-scale research facilities (JLSRF) publishes articles describing large-scale scientific equipment. This covers large-scale equipment from all scientific disciplines that is intended to be used by scientists who are not affiliated to the institution operating the facilities (dedicated user operation).

    IEEE Data Descriptions (IEEE-DATA)External link

    IEEE Data Descriptions is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes short articles on all aspects of data: data descriptors, data collections, and metadata. Its overarching purpose is to promote publicly available datasets (open access or subscription-based access) in support of reproducible science while at the same time bringing insights into the associated dataset, data collection methods, and data quality. The metadata collected provides enhanced dataset discoverability and creates a foundation for future data science tools such as auto-discovery and mashups.

Information

Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Jena University Hospital (UKJ) can apply for funding for Open Access publications via the Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB)External link.

Specific information on Open Access publishingExternal link and how to apply for fundingExternal link can be found on the ThULB website.