3: Data, Software & Workflows
Add data, software, and workflows into the publication as first-class research objects Other Information:
Claims are hard to verify and results are hard to reuse -- Most types of scholarship involve claims, and all sciences and
many other fields require that these claims be independently testable. Good results are often re-used, sometimes thousands
of times. But actually obtaining the necessary materials, data or software for such re-use is far harder than it should be.
Even in the rare cases where the data are part of the research communication, these are typically relegated to the status
of ‘supplementary material', whose format [Murray-Rust, 2007] and preservation [Rosenthal and Reich, 2010] are inadequate.
Sometimes the data are archived in separate data repositories that offer a more secure long-term future. But in such circumstances
efforts need to be made to ensure that their links to the relevant textual research communications are explicit, robust and
persistent. At present it is difficult for a scholar easily and sustainably to record the data on which the work is based
in a form that others can absorb and use, and to maintain links to the associated textual publication.
Objective(s):
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