Peering Outward: Data Curation Services in Academic Libraries and Scientific Data Publishing

Data curation services in libraries are poised to make strides in science data publishing. A chief objective in data curation is ensuring that data are shareable. To provide curation services for research data is, in part, to foster channels of access to them, such as through citation and publication. This chapter teases out the synergy between publishing services and data curation services in libraries. It reports on the current status of each type of service, providing context and drawing out comparisons between library publishing and data publishing. The complications surrounding peer review of data sets are also examined. Such background sets the stage for assessing the state of data publishing in the sciences by looking in brief at data policies currently enacted by journal publishers for associating articles with data sets, data repositories that publishers and researchers use for linking data with publications, and the genres of the data journal and the data paper. It also captures briefly what some programs and services in publishing and data curation at academic libraries are currently accomplishing in data publishing. As the chapter suggests, the paradigm for publication of data in the sciences seems always to be shifting. The goal, however, is to lay a foundation for understanding scientific data publishing, as well as the role that data curation services in libraries can play in it.