How to write a good
Data in Brief article
Hao-Ran Wang, PhD
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Editor-in-Chief of Data in Brief
[January 2016]
How to write a good
Data in Brief article
HAO-RAN WANG, PhD
Scientists across all disciplines create a wealth of data in
many formats, of which only a small percentage is
disseminated via the publication of peer-reviewed
research articles. Many disciplines and funding bodies
are beginning to mandate data sharing as a standard
component of scientific dissemination. Launched in 2014,
the multidisciplinary journal Data in Brief addresses this
need by providing a venue to describe any data from any
field that may be useful to another researcher.
Its data articles are different from research articles or
even short communications. The data is not judged on its
significance but on its utility and potential reuse. Null/
negative and intermediate results (or in this case the data
underlying those) are acceptable Data in Brief material as
long as they are truthful.
Data articles are reviewed for clarity and completeness. If
the data is solid and useful, some minor revisions may be
needed, but authors are not requested to re-run their
experiments or generate a new dataset and then resubmit.
The peer-review process is transparent, and generally much
faster than for a research paper.
The articles ensure your data, which may otherwise remain
unpublished or be buried in supplementary material, is
citable, actively reviewed, curated, formatted, indexed, and
publicly available to all upon publication.
Overleaf we cover some useful tips to bear in mind when
writing a data article for Data in Brief.
How to write a good Data in Brief article 2
Do: Don’t:
In general ■ The journal Data in Brief publishes a ■ Data articles published by Data in Brief
very specific article type that allows you are not mini-research papers or short
to describe and share data. communications.
■ Follow the Data in Brief template to ■ Don’t include a Conclusion, Discussion
prepare your article. or Summary section.
■ Remove all submission instructions. ■ Don’t use words such as 'study, 'results',
■ Use the word ‘data’ throughout your 'conclusions', etc.
data article wherever possible. ■ Don’t provide excessive background
■ Spell out acronyms and abbreviations. information but refer to published
■ Include enough information so that articles whenever possible.
your data article can be read on its own. ■ Data in Brief is primarily a venue to
describe original data rather than new
methods.
Title ■ The title should be unique and focus ■ Don’t use the same title as an existing
on the data you are sharing. research paper.
■ If possible use the words ‘data’, ■ Don’t use words such as ‘effects’,
‘dataset’, etc. in the title. ‘evidence’, ‘response’, ‘implications’,
‘influence’ etc. in the title.
Abstract ■ The abstract should be purely ■ Don’t copy the abstract from a research
descriptive and describe the contents paper.
of the data article. ■ Don’t describe any related research
■ If the data article is related to a article, results, or provide too much
research article, include the background.
abbreviated reference in the abstract.
Specifications ■ Fill in the fields in the Specifications ■ Don’t leave the examples provided in the
table table. table or they may end up in your final
■ Remove all instructions from the table. article.
If a field is not applicable, leave it ■ Don’t include too much information in
blank (e.g. data source location). for example the “Experimental Factors”
■ Keep the fields in the table brief. and “Experimental Features” fields.
■ If your dataset is deposited in a public Instead move the details to the Materials
repository, include the link in ‘Data and Methods in the text.
accessibility’. It is not necessary to ■ Don’t include links to data in
reproduce the data in the Data in Brief repositories that are behind a firewall.
article.
Value of the ■ Value of the Data should include 3-5 ■ Don’t offer interpretative statements or
Data broad, general, short bullet points. conclusions about the data nor state the
■ Put into perspective the utility of the value of this data relative to any related
data beyond what you used it for in research study.
your own research. ■ Don’t make conclusions about any data
■ Explain how/why the data you are not presented in your data article.
sharing in this Data in Brief article
could be generically valuable to the
scientific community, with an eye
towards possibly opening up doors for
new collaborations.
How to write a good Data in Brief article 3
Do: Don’t:
Data ■ Provide a brief description of the data ■ The data should not be published
and its context. previously in a research paper or in its
■ If possible, include the raw data beside supplementary material.
statistical analysis. ■ Don’t copy and paste figures, data or
■ For data to be more effective, we tables from a research paper. Instead
encourage better presentation, add a reference to published data in
visualization as well as quantification of other articles.
the data, images etc. ■ Datasets reported in the Data in Brief
■ Add captions to figures and tables. article should result from experiment or
■ Your data can be either included with observation rather than e.g. computer
the article, or deposited in a repository. simulations.
Experimental ■ Give the essential information to ■ Don’t copy and paste the entire
Design, understand the data/how the data was Materials & Methods section from a
Materials and created. research paper. These may not all be
Methods ■ Include only information directly relevant to the data article.
relevant to the data being shared. Add
additional detail as necessary.
■ Add equations or enough information
to explain how derived data or
statistics were generated.
References ■ Cite related work in the literature ■ Don’t cite articles that aren’t directly
where appropriate. relevant to the Data in Brief article.
■ If your article was transferred to Data
in Brief via another Elsevier journal,
ensure that you have cited your main
research article.
Data in Brief datasets can vary from very small to very large; for example, a data
article can deal with one single dataset, image or table or it may simply describe a
very large dataset deposited in a public repository.
All data described in an article submitted to Data in Brief must be made publicly avail-
able. This can be via:
1. The article. You can upload datasets as individual zip files during the submission
process in our electronic submission system, but the system may not be able to
process very large datasets.
2. Public repositories. There are many public repositories to which you can upload
your datasets, some of which are field specific. See our list of supported data
repositories.
3. Mendeley Data. If you aren’t sure where exactly you should put your data, or you
have data that falls outside of the data accepted by the established repository in
your field, you can upload your files to Mendeley Data which has a limit of 10GB
per dataset (uploading and labelling each individual .zip file would be best here).
How to write a good Data in Brief article 4
Mendeley Data, with which Data in Brief is collaborating, is free for the journal’s
authors. If you choose this route, you upload all your data files into Mendeley
Data without hitting ‘publish’. This means the editor and reviewers can look at
your data during the review process (and you can still make changes to the data
and metadata), but the data is not yet publicly available. Then, when you submit
your final, revised version, you can formally publish your dataset on Mendeley
Data, which makes it fully open access to everyone, and provides the final dataset
DOI in your Data in Brief article. The two will be both linked and archived after
that.
Many roads to publishing data articles
A growing number of participating Elsevier journals give authors the option to
convert supplementary data into a data article that they co-submit to the journal
Data in Brief alongside their research article. If the research article is accepted for
publication, it is sent directly to Data in Brief for a final editorial review. The research
article and the data article are then linked on the ScienceDirect platform.
And of course, a data article can be always submitted directly to Data in Brief:
1. Fill in this template
2. Submit the document to the journal’s online submission system
3. See also our Data in Brief FAQ.
Finally, there are a number of other Elsevier journals that publish data articles. While
the general tips for writing Data in Brief articles in this guide usually apply to these
publications, please note they may have their own templates and specific instructions.
We recommend you always check the journal’s homepage for further details.
How to write a good Data in Brief article 5
