Archive and publish collections

INFO

Since Monday May 6th, the RDR has a new feature. All Data Sharing Collections (DSCs) now have an additional step in the publication process, namely the FAIR review. In this step a FAIR reviewer will help to make your data collection more FAIR. This ensures that when you publish a data collection with the RDR, the quality of that data collection is high and potential data users will be better able to find and reuse it. For more information on what this step entails, see our help page on FAIR review. Be aware that this new feature will probably effect your time schedule when publishing a DSC.

When you have finished working on a Data Acquisition Collection (DAC) or a Research Document Collection (RDC), you should archive the collection. During the archiving process, you first change the state of the collection to internal review which serves as a last checkpoint for you and your colleagues (other managers, contributors, and viewers) to inspect the collection. If no changes need to be made, you can definitively archive the collection to ensure that the DAC or RDC becomes read-only and is protected against (undesired) changes. See the manual on archiving a DAC or RDC for a detailed description on how to archive your collection.

When publishing your research paper, you should publish the corresponding Data Sharing Collection (DSC). The publishing route includes three review steps: internal review, FAIR review, and external review. Internal review serves to review your collection with your colleagues (other managers, contributors, and viewers of the collection). FAIR review is a mandatory check of your collection by a FAIR reviewer and serves to enhance adherence to the FAIR principles of your collection. External review serves to share your collection with external reviewers, such as journal editors or reviewers. Finally, if your manuscript has been accepted for publication and all parties involved deem the collection ready, you can publish it. Upon publication, the DOI becomes active and the collection becomes permanently read-only. See the manual publishing a DSC for a detailed description on how to publish your collection.

Note that the transitions from internal review to archived and from external review to published can take some time; ranging from an hour to more than a day. The time it takes to archive or publish your collection depends on several factors, not only on the size of your collection. Even small collections could take a lot of time to archive or publish. If you have a deadline to publish your DSC, take this extra time into account and ensure that you are ready to publish the DSC a couple of days prior to your deadline.