Chemistry-specific README template for data publications

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Abstract

The practice of publishing data alongside a research article, or even as a standalone publication, is becoming increasingly common in the chemistry community. While there are many chemistry-specific repositories, which allow for the storage of chemistry-specific metadata (to a different extent), most data are published in more generic repositories now. Very common repositories are Zenodo, institutional repositories and RADAR4Chem. The ability to provide chemistry-specific metadata is often limited in these repositories. In addition, we noticed that the good practice of providing a README file which describes the provenance of the data is not often used. To support researchers with these two challenges, we have created this README template, which can be completed and added to one's own data publication. We encourage researchers to adapt and reuse the content for their own purposes. Furthermore, we want to encourage them to help to improve this template by adding content, e.g. specific method sections or suggestions for improvements, to our GitHub Repository at https://github.com/NFDI4Chem/Chemistry-specific_README_template_data_publications. New versions of the template will be published in GitHub and Zenodo using the versioning features, and all changes to the template will be documented.

Authors 6

1. Annett Schröter

   Friedrich Schiller University Jena

   Affiliation as printed

   Friedrich Schiller University Jena

2. Fabian Fink Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

3. Benjamin Golub
   Affiliation as printed

   The FAIR Elephant

4. Johannes Hunold

   Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)

5. Christian Bonatto Minella

   FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure

   Affiliation as printed

   FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure

6. Johannes C. Liermann

   Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

   Affiliation as printed

   Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz