Scientific advancement and discovery is accelerated by open data sharing. But, for the scientific community to benefit, data must be released in a way that makes it discoverable, interpretable, reusable and reproducible. Broader sharing also requires credit mechanisms that reward scientists for releasing their data. Scientific Data is a new open-access, online-only publication, developed by Nature Publishing Group (NPG), that aims to help meet these needs. In my talk, I will introduce Scientific Data and our efforts to build a publication platform that works for data. I will also outline other initiatives underway at NPG to promote open data sharing and reproducible science, and I will seek input from the audience on the challenges and obstacles scientists currently face when sharing or reusing research data.
Scientific Data is now open for submissions, and will launch formally this May.