Today, we’re opening a survey of researcher perceptions and practices around data publication.

Why are you doing a survey?

The term “Data publication” applies language and ideas from traditional scholarly publishing to datasets, with the goal of situating data within the academic reward system and encouraging sharing and reuse. However, the best way to apply these ideas to data is not obvious. The library community has been productively discussing these issues for some time; we hope to contribute by asking researchers directly what they would expect and want from a data publication.

Who should take it?

We are interested in responses from anyone doing research in any branch of the Sciences or Social Sciences at any level (but especially PIs and postdocs).

What do you hope to learn?

• What do researchers think it means to “publish” data? What do they expect from “peer review” of data?
• As creators of data, how do they want to be credited? What do they think is adequate?
• As users of published data, what would help them decide whether to work with a dataset?
• In evaluating their colleagues, what dataset metrics are most useful? What would be most impressive to, for instance, tenure & promotions committees?

What will you do with the results?

The results will inform the CDL’s vision of data publication and influence our efforts. Additionally, the results will be made public for use by anyone.

What do you want from me?

If you are a researcher, please take 5-10 minutes to complete the survey and consider telling your colleagues about it.

If you are a librarian or other campus staff, please consider forwarding the link to any researchers, departments, or listservs that you feel are appropriate. The text of an email describing the survey can be found here.

The survey can be found at:

http://goo.gl/PuIVoC

If you have any questions or concerns, email me or comment on this post.