The Coalition on Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS) develops and recommends best practices for journal author instructions around data and identifiers as a resource to the community. These best practices are consistent with and based on the COPDESS Statement of Commitment and have been developed with guidance from participants in COPDESS.

Data Policy Statement:

XXX journal has endorsed the Statement of Commitment of the Coalition on Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS).  All data and software necessary to understand, evaluate, replicate, and build upon the reported research must be made available and accessible at the time of publication as far as possible. Data should, to the greatest extent possible, be stored in appropriate domain repositories that are widely recognized and used by the community, follow leading practices for data curation, and can provide additional data services. Best Practices:
  • Include a prominent statement about data availability and link to COPDESS.
  • Encourage editors, reviewers, and staff to evaluate data and affirm availability.
  • Statement above is one minimal version of data availability requirements.  Other examples are provided here: http://www.copdess.org/datapolicies/
  • Software availability should be included as part of data availability.

Data Citation:

Xxx journal endorses the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles.  Authors should cite data and software in the reference section of their manuscript. Authors should strive to archive their data in established repositories that follow best practices. Lists of repositories in the Earth and Space Sciences are available at the Coalition on Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences https://copdessdirectory.osf.io/  and re3data http://www.re3data.org/.  Citation in a reference section applies to: 1) data and software that are already published, either in a previous paper or from a repository, and used in your manuscript; and 2) data sets or software that are newly generated by you or your co-authors and archived in a repository. The citation should adhere to emerging practices and include as much of the following information as possible: Dataset or software authors/producers, release date; title; version; archive/distributor, and the locator/identifier (doi preferred, or URL), and year.  Examples of citations are provided by ESIP. Data sets or software should not be formally referenced or listed in the acknowledgments section. Rather, the acknowledgements should include a general statement indicating where the data are available and any issues regarding availability (e.g., all the data used are listed in the references or archived in xxx repositories). These data sets should be cited as for all other references in the text and reference list as appropriate. Best Practices:
  • Journals should include data citations in the reference section of articles.
  • Journals should instruct their copyeditors to endeavour to identify data citations that are in line in the text and query authors about creating citations following guidelines above in references.
  • Journals and editors should encourage authors to deposit relevant data sets in domain repositories, or if a domain repository is not available, general repositories, rather than as supplementary information.

Sample Citation and Identification:

XXX Journal recommends use of IGSN’s (International Geo Sample Numbers) for citing samples reported in research papers. The IGSN provides a unique identifier that allows samples to be linked across publications and searched through a central metadata repository. We strongly encourage authors to register samples with an IGSN Allocating Agent  and obtain IGSN’s and use them throughout their manuscript, tables, and archived data sets. We recognize IGSN’s during our production process and will provide links in the manuscript and tables to the registered sample descriptions.  IGSN’s can be reserved before field seasons, or assigned afterwards. For more information, see http://www.igsn.org. Best Practices
  • Encourage editors, reviewers, and staff to check that samples are cited by IGSN.
  • Journals should provide actionable links for IGSN’s in publications.
  • The IGSN should be used in conjunction with personal or institutional sample names, it does not replace such names.

Crossref Funder Registry

XXX journal supports the Crossref Funder Registry, an open index of organizations that fund research.  Authors should indicate the organization(s) that supported the described research as part of the manuscript submission form, using the Registry to select organization name. Corresponding authors should collect relevant funding information from all co-authors.  This information is included in the processed manuscript, in a separate funding section.  If not captured elsewhere in the print or PDF version, funding information should also be included as part of the acknowledgments or a separate funding section so that they are part of all versions of the paper. Best practices
  • Journal should collect funding information accurately from all authors by providing a selection list using the Crossref Funder Registry. At a minimum the information should include funder name, funding organization identifier, grant number or identifier, and grantee.
  • Funding information should be included in article metadata and displayed on the article web site and PDF (this can be in the acknowledgements or, better, by including the Funder Registry metadata as a section in the PDF).

ORCIDs

XXX journal encourages all authors and reviewers to register for an ORCID identifier (http://orcid.org/register) and connect it to your account in our editorial system.  We now require an ORCID for all corresponding authors (https://orcid.org/content/requiring-orcid-publication-workflows-open-letter) and strongly encourage it for all authors.  Your ORCID identifier will be included in your published manuscript, and we will in turn update your publication list in your ORCID record.  (Please look for an email message from ORCID and Crossref to grant permission for this update process). Including your ORCID identifier helps ensure you get credit for your work, improves integrity in publishing, and enables discovery and linking of your publications, datasets, and more. Further information on ORCID is available here: https://orcid.org/content/initiative. Best Practices
  • Require ORCID identifiers for corresponding authors at least, via single-sign-on with ORCID (do not allow authors to enter or type in their ORCID and do not use a method that searches for names in ORCID prior to authentication)
  • Encourage ORCID identifiers for reviewers and credit their reviews on ORCID
  • Display author ORCID iDs in manuscripts
  • Include ORCID iDs in metadata submissions to Crossref and other indexing/syndication systems
  • See http://orcid.org/blog/2013/08/08/suggested-practices-collection-and-display-orcid-ids-publishing-workflows for reference

Presentations on Best Practices

ISMTE-2016 Presentation (PDF of Presentation by Brooks Hanson at ISMTE on 12 August 2016). Best Practices in Oral Presentations