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Looking to publish here on the AAS Open Research platform? If so, you’ll need to make your data openly available as part of the process of submitting your work. Doing so has many benefits – from helping you get credit for the essential data that underpins your findings, to offering greater citation potential for your work.  

But how do you go about it? What are the steps to take for making your research data open? 

In this blog, we share 4 tips from a recent webinar with our publishing partner, F1000Research. Watch the full webinar below to learn more about open data essentials.  

1. Data can take many forms

Not sure if you actually have any research data? Most research does in some form, but it doesn’t always look like you might expect. It can take the form of code, interviews, survey responses, photographs, or something else. It’s the underlying foundations on which your research results rely.  

“The recorded information (regardless of the form or the media in which it may exist) necessary to support or validate a research project’s observations, findings, or outputs, or which is required for legal, funder, or regulatory compliance.”  

2. Open data has a specific definition

Open data describes a way of making data accessible to researchers and readers. It’s stored in a repository under an open license (normally CC0 for AAS Open Research, which facilitates data reuse). You’ll need to make your data open for your article to be accepted for publication on AAS Open Research.  

3. Deposit your data in a stable and recognized repository 

To ensure your data is preserved and reproducible by others in the academic community, you should deposit your data in a stable and recognized open repository with a Creative Commons license (normally CC0 for AAS Open Research).  

There are lots of different options out there, including general (non-subject specific) and specialist repositories. Some key questions to check before you choose are: does your funder or institution have any requirements? What are the repositories used in your specific subject area?  

4. Link your data to your published article 

Once your article is published on AAS Open Research, it’s a good idea to update the description of your data in its repository, providing the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of your published article. This ensures your article and data are connected, bringing your research outputs together and helping you get credit for all the valuable parts of your research.  

Learn more about making your data open in our data guidelines