Closing the data gap: creating an open data environment

Abstract

Poor data management brought on by increasing volumes of complex data undermines both the integrity of the scientific process and the usefulness of datasets. Researchers should endeavour both to make their data citeable and to cite data whenever possible. The reusability of datasets is improved by community adoption of comprehensive metadata standards and public availability of reversibly reduced data. Where standards are not yet defined, as much information as possible about the experiment and samples should be preserved in datafiles written in a standard format. © 2013, Elsevier B.V.