Saturday September 22, 2012 14:30 - 17:30 @ Gallieni 5 

Sunday September 23, 2012 13:15 - 14:15 @ Agora 2 

Monday September 24, 2012 18:50 - 19:05 @ Rhodes 6 

Integrating 'Source Data' Into Scientific Papers

Abstract:

The effective and unrestricted exchange of peer-reviewed research data is essential to the advancement of science. This requires making published data available, searchable and re-usable. However, these objectives cannot be achieved within the constraints of the current research paper, where research findings are published as textual narratives or visual illustrations, making it difficult to systematically mine and re-use the data. The increasing rate of publications makes the task of retrieving specific information ever more important.

I will discuss some of the associated challenges that are faced both by the scientific community and scientific journals at the policy, technological and economical levels. I will also present the EMBO SourceData project, which aims to integrate data and structured metadata into papers. This should improve the rigour of data reporting and access to research data, enable new search strategies, and link the literature to public biological databases.