Data and record storage after paper publication
Rebecca R. Pompano, University of Virginia
Publishing a paper is a big achievement that reflects months or years of work. It is critical to archive the data and the files associated with that work immediately, before it gets lost. We must be able to find all original data and analyses for at least 5 years (per UVA policy and best practices)… likely long after the primary authors have left the lab!
To facilitate, immediately after your paper is accepted, please compile an organized folder containing the items listed below. Subfolders are recommended to help others make use of this archive later.
Publication files:
- Final versions of Manuscript and SI Word docs from each submission and revision
- Earlier drafts are not needed
- Cover letter (Word file) from journal submission and any resubmissions
- List of suggested referees, if not included in the cover letter
- Final Inkscape files (all figures, including SI figures)
- Final exported images for each figure (including SI figures)
- All movies included in the publication
- All additional supplemental data (e.g. CAD files)
- Zotero library (export your library to a saved file) (see note at bottom of document)
Data:
** Remember that all primary data files must reference the notebook page that they are associated with.
** Please organize the data into sub-folders by figure number, if possible.
- Critical Prism files
- Critical Excel files, annotated so that they are understandable to someone else (show someone else and ask them if they can understand!)
- Critical plate reader data
- Critical microscope images … this means all original images that were used in the paper, and ideally all images in the associated data sets.
- if there are a large number of raw microscopy images that were not included in the paper, these can be excluded from the folder to save space, but a note must be included detailing at least two places where they are backed up.
- Critical flow cytometry files
- Any code written or customized for this paper (MATLAB, etc)
- Any AutoCAD files, files for laser etching, etc
- Any data from electrophoretic gels (gel images, etc)
- Any other data that was part of the paper
Other:
- Any Powerpoint presentations or posters (group meeting, conferences, etc) associated with this data
- Any protocols that you wrote specifically for the methods in this paper
- Any other items not listed here that would be essential to proving that we did this work or to repeating it
Once you have the folder:
- Back it up on your lab-issued external harddrive
- Bring a copy to your PI on a USB or hard drive, to be copied on the PI’s computer and external harddrive (you will get the USB back)
- Back it up on the main lab-backup 1 TB harddrive (currently attached to the Zoom microscope)
This must be done within 1 week of your paper acceptance. Thank you!
---------
How to export all of the Zotero references from your final manuscript into a separate Zotero library:
- There is currently no way to do this directly in Zotero (as of Feb 2019)
- But, there is a 3rd-party workaround here that works very well. Just follow the instructions on their site to upload your Word doc and download their “CSL JSON” file. You should give me the json file. This file type can be imported into Zotero. https://rintze.zelle.me/ref-extractor/