Guideline 13
Providing public access to research results
As a rule, researchers make all results available as part of scientific/academic discourse. In specific cases, however, there may be reasons not to make results publicly available (in the narrower sense of publication, but also in a broader sense through other communication channels); this decision must not depend on third parties. Researchers decide autonomously – with due regard for the conventions of the relevant subject area – whether, how and where to disseminate their results. If it has been decided to make results available in the public domain, researchers describe them clearly and in full. Where possible and reasonable, this includes making the research data, materials and information on which the results are based, as well as the methods and software used, available and fully explaining the work processes. Software programmed by researchers them- selves is made publicly available along with the source code. Researchers provide full and correct information about their own preliminary work and that of others.
Explanation
In the interest of transparency and to enable research to be referred to and reused by others, whenever possible researchers make the research data and principal materials on which a publication is based available in recognised archives and repositories in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Restrictions may apply to public availability in the case of patent applications. If self-developed research software is to be made available to third parties, an appropriate licence is provided.
In line with the principle of “quality over quantity”, researchers avoid split- ting research into inappropriately small publications. They limit the repetition of content from publications of which they were (co-)authors to that which is necessary to enable the reader to understand the context. They cite results previously made publicly available unless, in exceptional cases, this is deemed unnecessary by the general conventions of the discipline.
Comments
- Academic publishing as a foundation and area of leverage for research assessment
-
DFG Practical Guidelines on Digitisation
-
FAIR access to research software
Research software used to generate and publish research results should be incorporated in scientific discourse. Researchers themselves decide how to publish their research software.
-
Limiting the number of self-citations to a minimum and ensuring their correctness
Citation of one’s own publications should be kept to the minimum necessary in order to understand the context. Where such a citation is indispensable, it is to be made properly and completely.
-
Making research results accessible on the internet free of charge
Research results can be made accessible free of charge on the internet either by posting them in discipline-specific or institutional electronic archives (OA repositories) in addition to publication by a publishing house, or by publishing them directly in OA media.
-
Possible reasons for restricting the publication of research results
One reason for not making results publicly available may be that researchers do not hold the sole rights to the research results.
-
Publication of scientific results in preprints
Preprints are academic publications that are published without peer review, thereby allowing for the rapid dissemination of research results.
-
Referencing one’s own preliminary work (“self-plagiarism” or “text recycling”)
The re-use of a researcher’s own preliminary work should be appropriately indicated.
-
Restrictions on the publication of source codes
-
The decision to publish
The decision of whether or not to publish findings is generally made by the researcher responsible for the research results.
-
The most important forms of publication
Forms of publication with an identifier; Fast forms of publication with hyperlink, changeable content and shorter retention periods; Other forms of publication
-
Handling research software – case studies
Based on practical examples, the handling of research software is explained in the fields of theoretical chemistry and theoretical physics.
-
Open Science as Part of Research Culture. Positioning of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)
-
Quality standards in connection with rapid publication
Rapid publication of research data and findings by no means allows any compromise to be made in terms of accepted quality standards in the given field.
-
What is the correct interpretation of the sentence: “Software programmed by researchers themselves is made publicly available along with the source code”?
The sentence is intrinsically linked to the concept of enabling public availability as introduced in Guideline 7. If this broad understanding of enabling public availability is taken as a basis for Guideline 13, too, the self-programmed software and source code do not necessarily have to be published.
-
FAQ on making research results publicly accessible
-
Further links on making research results publicly accessible
-
Public access to the source code in the case of self-programmed software in connection with mathematical projects
The results of publicly funded research projects should be fully accessible to the public.
-
Archiving data in the earth sciences and environmental sciences
Best practice example – PANGAEA
-
Citations in mathematics
In mathematical texts, it is not common practice to use quotation marks to identify verbatim quotations of one’s own and external text sources.
-
Electronic laboratory journal and repository in chemistry
The possibilities of an electronic laboratory journals linked to a repository in the context of chemistry are illustrated as examples.
-
Enabling the availability of primary data and archiving it
Numerical simulations can generate very large quantities of data, so it is not always expedient to make the direct results – i.e. the primary data – available in full for the purpose of verifiability and reuse.
-
Making Research Results Accessible in the Life Sciences
-
Making research results available
Research results are often unique or consist of large amounts of data. Both make fully comprehensive provision difficult.
-
Positive example of the utilisation of older data in the geosciences
Example from Saxony
-
Replication as a component of quality assurance in the humanities and social sciences
The replication of findings obtained using quantitative methodology is an essential component of quality assurance in all research in the humanities and social sciences.
-
Research design in the life sciences
-
Reusable and open methods and protocols in the life sciences
Recommendations for detailed recording of research methods
-
Self-citations in the engineering sciences
The description of a general experimental set-up may be similar across several publications.
-
Software development and handling research data in mathematics
Appropriate accessibility is important in terms of the verifiability of research work in mathematics where self-developed software and data are key factors.
-
Storage capacity and management of sample material in the geosciences
Examples of best practice
-
Use of chemistry-specific repositories
Chemistry-specific repositories can be used to deposit research results in the form of data and materials (e.g. chemical substances).
The DFG has responded to developments in the field of academic publishing with its position paper “Academic Publishing as a Foundation and Area of Leverage for Research Assessment”.