Springer Nature launches Open data badges pilot

Motivating authors to share their data Researchers say that receiving more credit and recognition for their work motivates them to share their research data, and badges for open science have been shown to increase data sharing by authors in some journals. Springer Nature has recently launched a pilot to see if, after in-house editorial assessment, awarding qualifying articles open data badges will: Affect levels of data sharing by authors Affect reader engagement with articles and their supporting data, and perceptions of article quality Help us understand the benefits and costs of consistently assessing and awarding open data badges for a Springer Nature journal The pilot, on BMC Microbiology, will provide qualifying authors with a digital badge to recognize and reward their contribution towards open science practices. While the notion of digital badging is not new (visit the Center for Open Science’s (COS) website for more information about their badging program), this is Springer Nature’s first experiment with implementing Open data badges. We understand incentives are important for changing research culture and are curious to see if encouraging authors to engage in behaviors which promote data accessibility, reproducibility, and transparency in scientific research with these badges is effective. We collaboratively developed a set of criteria in consultation with experts at COS that allows the Springer Nature Research Data Support team to assess every article in the...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Open Access Publishing BMC Microbiology Data Support Services open data open science Springer Nature Source Type: blogs