More Than 600 Springer Nature Journals Adopt New Data Sharing Policies
From Springer Nature:
More than 600 journals across Nature Research, Springer, BioMed Central and Palgrave Macmillan have committed to encouraging good practice in the sharing, archiving and citation of research data by adopting new Springer Nature research data policies.
The text of the policies has today been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license so that they can be re-used by the wider research community.
These easy-to-understand policies encourage the publication of more open and reproducible research, and aim to increase growth and innovation in research and data sharing. They improve services for authors, editors and peer reviewers by standardising policies and procedures, providing more consistent links between publications and data, guidelines and support. In addition, a dedicated Research Data Support helpdesk for Springer Nature authors and editors has been created.
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The policy types include:
- Type 1: Data sharing and data citation is encouraged
- Type 2: Data sharing and evidence of data sharing is encouraged
- Type 3: Data sharing encouraged and statements of data availability required
- Type 4: Data sharing, evidence of data sharing and peer review of data required
All types of policy support citation of research data – helping researchers gain credit for data sharing – in article reference lists, and support the deposition of research data in trusted research data repositories.
For example, Computer Science title Brain Informatics has adopted a Type 1 policy and Transition Metal Chemistry has adopted a Type 2 policy. All of the Nature -branded journals, BioMed Central journals and Palgrave Communications support type 3 policies. Journals with the strictest open data policies such as Scientific Data and Genome Biology support the requirements of the Type 4 policy.
Resources
- Full Text of Springer Nature Data Sharing Policies
- FAQs
- Springer Nature List of Trusted Data Repositories
- Research Data Support Helpdesk Contact Info
- Guidance/Examples of Preparing Data Availability Statements
Filed under: Data Files, News, Open Access, Springer Nature

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.