Data sharing is incredibly valuable for accelerating scientific discovery, improving reproducibility, ensuring quality, maintaining trust, and increasing attention and impact. But to realize those benefits, data must be shared in a way that allows other researchers to find, access, and understand it.

That’s where our experienced team of data curators come in. Dryad data curators are constantly working to ensure that each dataset we publish is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) — so that researchers and the scientific community reap the maximum benefits of data availability. 

What’s the role of a Dryad data curator?

Dryad data curators support authors throughout the data submission and publication processes. But their real work begins once datasets are uploaded to Dryad’s system. The data curation team thoroughly evaluates submitted datasets, checking the metadata, links, data, and README files to ensure that everything is in place and meets ethical standards and FAIR principles for publication.

If any changes are required, the curator reaches out to authors directly with personal help and advice. “This does happen to a large proportion of submissions,” said Data Curator Jeremy Walter. “Open Data sharing and publication is still a new frontier for most researchers.”

Once a data curator is assigned, that person works one-on-one with the authors, guiding them through the process of revising and reuploading their data files and supporting information until the dataset meets established best practices and Dryad guidelines for publication.

Top data-sharing tips for authors

The most challenging aspect for many authors is preparing the README file, said Walter. A README file is an essential part of any data package. It provides the context other researchers need to understand, reanalyze, or use the data, including:

• Definitions, abbreviations, units, etc.
• Datafile descriptions, parameters, and file structure
• Derivation details
• Code and software details, if applicable

Another important aspect of sharing is licensing. Researchers may not be aware that strict copyright protection is the default for all creations, from art to science. Dryad publishes exclusively under a CC0 waiver, meaning all datasets are fully available for access, sharing, remixing, and reuse for any purpose without restriction. That helps maximize the impact of your data.

README dos and don’ts
Consult our blog for Dryad data curators’ best-practice tips on preparing a README file that passes screening fast.

What Dryad authors are saying

Dryad strives to be an ally for authors, working with researchers to help accomplish the goals they have for their data. Those priorities often include fulfilling funder and publisher data availability policies, supporting reproducibility, or opening their work to future collaboration and expansion. Data curators are crucial to that partnership.  

We receive more positive feedback about the experience of working with Dryad data curators than any other aspect of our service. Here are just a few of the many messages of thanks authors sent so far this Spring.

• “Thank you very much for your helpful feedback and for pointing out these important issues — your comments have indeed helped us make the dataset clearer and more accessible. We sincerely appreciate your support and assistance during this process.”
• “Thank you so much! And again, I really appreciate your thoroughness with ensuring all provided data are open and accessible to all!”
• “I want to also just say that [Dryad] is an exceptional service, and I appreciate your support. It’s far and away the best one for our needs, and we are grateful to be able to use it.”
• “Thank you very much for your detailed advice — I truly appreciate your time and feedback. I apologize for the oversight. Since the data is quite familiar to me, I wasn’t fully aware of which parts might be unclear or incomplete to an outside reader.”
• “Thank you for your time and feedback on our dataset submission. I sincerely appreciate the careful curation process and the opportunity to improve the clarity and usability of our data.”

To this, we can only say — thank you, the feeling is mutual! We are so grateful for all of the researchers who choose to trust us with the curation, publication, and preservation of their data, and who share our vision of routine data sharing and reuse!