Create, curate, re-use: the expanding life course of digital research data

Abstract

Scientific communication used to be based on the article or the monograph. Now datasets and databases are becoming as important in some cases. Aside from their value in communication, data are also the raw stuff of the scientific record, and the basis for verifiability. So scientists need to curate the data they create, and make them available for re-use. What are the implications and effects of these changes, and what should scientists and scholars be doing about them?