How to make your research fit for others
A contribution by Jannes Uhlott and Sophie Boße – Part 1
There is a lot of data out there – but which has the quality I need? The advantages of data quality information are enormous. The data is reliable and users can assess for themselves whether the data is applicable for their specific purpose based on the extensive information. Unfortunately, however, data quality does not currently have a good standing in the agricultural science community. Our survey shows that most researchers do not have the time to delve deeper into the topic or apply it to their own data. The majority of participants who would like to receive additional information about datasets state that they would be willing to spend a maximum of 30 minutes per dataset to provide data quality information. In addition to a lack of time, a lack of standards in the area of metadata and data quality and a lack of knowledge about the topics were also mentioned.
To counteract this, tools are being created in FAIRagro that collect data (quality) information as automatically as possible. As data in the agricultural sciences is very heterogeneous and the devil is often in the detail, we will unfortunately have to wait a little longer for these miracle tools. Until then, how can we motivate both ourselves and our community to give data quality a place in our everyday (data) lives? What are simple and, above all, quick methods?
Sharing data and sponging citations: How to boost your science karma with good documentation
In general, publishing your data enables others to reuse it. This saves the scientific community time and therefore enormous costs, as the data does not have to be collected and processed again. The more detailed your data is documented and provided with quality information, the easier it can be reused by others. Describing data and its quality in detail and publishing it for reuse will earn you more than just a few karma points! Above all, it can enable you to obtain citations, which are the currency of science. It also makes you better known – who hasn’t always wanted to be asked about their great data at a conference?
In general, however, creating new knowledge and sharing it is the basic principle of science and should therefore motivate your inner researcher self anyway. With a publication comes the possibility that your knowledge will be used further – that your work will be recognized and not just gather dust in a drawer!
Another big advantage of publishing data or code is that you can find your own things again later. Regardless of whether you are now working at another institute or on the other side of the world. And since you had to create documentation of the data or code for the publication, the chances are very good that you will still understand your work years later. This is complemented by the additional backup of the data by publishing it in repositories or similar. Even if you lose the hard disk or your laptop has water damage, the data is still stored there. Once the documentation and publication of data or code is complete, you can cross this item off your to-do list once and for all. This means you don’t have to remember every week that you should look through and sort out the data junk again at some point. You’ve already done this a long time ago and everything is sorted and uploaded – so publishing and documenting will even help you to reduce stress and keep your inner order!
Part 2 will be published on October 17th
Authors: Sophie Boße and Jannes Uhlott