Archiving Primary Data: Solutions for Long-Term Studies

James A Mills, Céline Teplitsky, Beatriz Arroyo, Anne Charmantier, Peter H Becker, Tim R Birkhead, Pierre Bize, Daniel T Blumstein, Christophe Bonenfant, Stan Boutin, Andrey Bushuev, Emmanuelle Cam, Andrew Cockburn, Steeve D Côté, John C Coulson, Francis Daunt, Niels J Dingemanse, Blandine Doligez, Hugh Drummond, Richard H M EspieMarco Festa-Bianchet, Francesca Frentiu, John W Fitzpatrick, Robert W Furness, Dany Garant, Gilles Gauthier, Peter R Grant, Michael Griesser, Lars Gustafsson, Bengt Hansson, Michael P Harris, Frédéric Jiguet, Petter Kjellander, Erkki Korpimäki, Charles J Krebs, Luc Lens, John D C Linnell, Matthew Low, Andrew McAdam, Antoni Margalida, Juha Merilä, Anders P Møller, Shinichi Nakagawa, Jan-Åke Nilsson, Ian C T Nisbet, Arie J van Noordwijk, Daniel Oro, Tomas Pärt, Fanie Pelletier, Jaime Potti, Benoit Pujol, Denis Réale, Robert F Rockwell, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Alexandre Roulin, James S Sedinger, Jon E Swenson, Christophe Thébaud, Marcel E Visser, Sarah Wanless, David F Westneat, Alastair J Wilson, Andreas Zedrosser

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

92 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The recent trend for journals to require open access to primary data included in publications has been embraced by many biologists, but has caused apprehension amongst researchers engaged in long-term ecological and evolutionary studies. A worldwide survey of 73 principal investigators (Pls) with long-term studies revealed positive attitudes towards sharing data with the agreement or involvement of the PI, and 93% of PIs have historically shared data. Only 8% were in favor of uncontrolled, open access to primary data while 63% expressed serious concern. We present here their viewpoint on an issue that can have non-trivial scientific consequences. We discuss potential costs of public data archiving and provide possible solutions to meet the needs of journals and researchers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)581-589
Number of pages9
JournalTrends in Ecology & Evolution
Volume30
Issue number10
Early online date25 Sept 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2015

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acknowledgments
We wish to thank all of the principal investigators who provided information on their long-term studies. C.T. was funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant ANR-12-ADAP-0006). Many thanks to Sandra Hamel, Susan Alberts, and Walt Koenig for constructive comments. Deborah Mills assisted in the analysis and editing the manuscript.

Keywords

  • Long term data sharing
  • Public data archiving

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