Workshop to Address Changing Practices Around the Publication of Biological Data, Washington, D.C., December, 2014

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The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) will convene a meeting to identify productive ways in which more journals could encourage sharing of research data. AIBS member societies represent the breadth of the biological sciences, including organismal, comparative, ecological, and evolutionary biology. Currently, scientific societies and their journals have taken varied approaches to publication of data. By enacting coordinated policies, societies and their journals could play a key role in ensuring a smooth transition to greater public access to research data. Key stakeholders will gather with scientific publishers, government officials, and biologists to discuss possible models for journal policies that could help to improve public access. AIBS will also involve graduate students interested in conducting research with publicly available data, as well as science policy, communications, and publishing.In February, 2013, the Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP) put forth a memorandum on "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research," which is serving as a guide for government agencies now developing plans to improve public access to scientific publications and data. In this context, participants will make preliminary assessments of the implications of current and expected changes in data management practices and essential elements of model policies for journals. Among the issues are 1) concerns about attribution of published data and about how professional credit will accrue to researchers who publish them; 2) ensuring adequate quality control and application of standards (for example, what authorities should be consulted on species names?); 3) the identification of legal constraints on publication; 4) The consideration of ?data papers? that describe a data set but do not offer analyses; and, 5) the time and expense that might be involved in publishing primary research data in a way that will be useful to others. The workshop will be broadcast by Webcast and available for future viewing; an online discussion forum will be established to enable public comment. To extend the benefits of the workshop, an advisory working group will be established to sustain awareness and engagement by the editors of the biological journals, their readers, and society members.