Because good research needs good data

New nature corresponding author policy on data

Chris Rusbridge | 04 May 2009

Thanks to Michael Jubb for pointing me to the editorial outlining the new Nature policy:

"Accordingly, we have modified the Nature journal policy on authorship, which is detailed on our website (http://tinyurl.com/dkgbf8). For papers submitted by collaborations, we now delineate the responsibilities of the senior members of each collaboration group on the paper. Before submitting the paper, at least one senior member from each collaborating group must take responsibility for their group's contribution. Three major responsibilities are covered: preservation of the original data on which the paper is based, verification that the figures and conclusions accurately reflect the data collected and that manipulations to images are in accordance with Nature journal guidelines (http://tinyurl.com/cmmrp7), and minimization of obstacles to sharing materials, data and algorithms through appropriate planning."

This sort of policy from respected journals is seriously good for data curation![Updated to enable the Nature tinyurls.]