Why archive my data?

Why do the British Ecological Society journals require me to archive my data? At the BES, along with many other ecology journals, we require that all data (and code for theortical papers) associated with published papers are archived in an appropriate public repository. We do this because we believe data are important products of scientific enterprise, and they should be preserved and usable in the … Continue reading Why archive my data?

The Future of Data Archiving

At the BES Annual Meeting 2015 in Edinburgh, a lively debate was held on the future of data archiving. The debate was recorded and the video can be viewed here.

The British Ecology Society (BES) has been mandating the archiving of data for all papers published in its journals since January 2014, so with the mandate having been in place for over 2 years this was a good opportunity to take stock of the impacts and look to the future. While it is recognised that data archiving presents both financial and time costs to researchers, the benefits of data preservation and validation of results help to advance science. The aim of the debate was to provide the opportunity for researchers to debate the pros and cons of data archiving in an open format. Continue reading “The Future of Data Archiving”