A lost opportunity for science: journals promote data sharing in metabolomics but do not enforce it

Metabolomics. 2018;14(1):16. doi: 10.1007/s11306-017-1309-5. Epub 2017 Dec 26.

Abstract

Introduction: Data sharing is being increasingly required by journals and has been heralded as a solution to the 'replication crisis'.

Objectives: (i) Review data sharing policies of journals publishing the most metabolomics papers associated with open data and (ii) compare these journals' policies to those that publish the most metabolomics papers.

Methods: A PubMed search was used to identify metabolomics papers. Metabolomics data repositories were manually searched for linked publications.

Results: Journals that support data sharing are not necessarily those with the most papers associated to open metabolomics data.

Conclusion: Further efforts are required to improve data sharing in metabolomics.

Keywords: Data sharing; Journal; Metabolomics; Open data.