Public Access to Research Results: Data Accessibility in Physics and Astronomy

American Astronomical Society, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The proposing professional scholarly organizations, the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics, will conduct a pilot project to deliver the digital data sets that underlie figures and tables in three of the journals that they publish in astronomy and plasma physics. The project will involve developing methods for identifying and acquiring those digital data, as well as for providing access to the actual data objects in the published literature. The proposers will (i) conduct surveys of authors to determine their willingness to share data and their interest in re-using data that other researchers might publish; (ii) convene expert stakeholders for focused workshops on metadata semantics, digital structures and formats, and on practices for peer review of data; (iii) develop and refine publishing production methods to acquire, validate, deliver, maintain, and curate data; and (iv) raise the awareness of scientists about the merits of and prospects for sharing data. The pilot will be assessed in part by quantitative metrics on the submission of data sets for publication and the use of these data sets by readers of the participating journals, and the outcomes will be disseminated through multiple forums to the scholarly publishing and research communities.