Fishy fossils and lemur survival: cases studies in data curation

The research published in Nature represents a significant advance in our understanding of fish evolution; and the research in BMC Ecology provides evidence for the influence of hormones on survival rates of primates. These two articles highlight the diverse needs of data publishing and curation support, from multi-gigabyte computed tomography (CT) images, in the Nature article, to Excel spreadsheets for Dr Josué Hasina Rakotoniaina’s experiments involving mouse lemurs. For researchers that opt to use the Data Support Services, Research Data Editors will carry out a range of checks and enhancements on their metadata (information that helps discovery and interpretation of the files) and the structure and presentation of their datasets. The Data Support Services are also able to support a range wide of file types and sizes of data. By using the Data Support Services the data supporting these articles now include: Links to associated, peer-reviewed publication(s) – connecting data directly to other outputs A persistent identifier (DOI) for the data – enhancing accessibility Clear citation information – enabling proper accreditation Files that are preview-able in browser – improving accessibility Consistent metadata and contextual information for each file – increasing discoverability Clear license/terms of use – ensuring correct usage The publication of these datasets was also managed for the authors, ensuring a coordinated release of data and article, including ...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Biology Open Access Publishing BMC Ecology Data Support Services FigShare Nature Source Type: blogs