During International Open Access Week, Brill and Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) launched the Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences, a new, international, peer-reviewed, Open Access data journal.
The Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences (RDJ) contains short publications (data papers) in which researchers describe their dataset, the context of their research, ask key questions, and explain the methods used. In addition, data papers include a broad profile of the dataset, listing, for example, common characteristics or remarkable results. Conclusions such as those found in a regular academic article are not included, but space is provided for some closing remarks. Readers can respond to the content by means of a comments field. Data must have been deposited in a trusted repository, such as DANS’s online archival system EASY.
In the past, Brill and DANS have contributed to the promotion of so-called enhanced publications: digital articles on scientific research that are closely integrated with the research data. The new journal expands on this tradition and offers researchers an online platform on which to display their research to interested parties. Readers will have easy access to recently completed research as well as to (interactive) data visualisations and direct access via hyperlinks, whenever possible, to the actual data. The ultimate goal is to facilitate the discoverability, replicability, reusability and citability of research data.
The Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences will appear twice annually. Researchers can submit their manuscript for consideration online at brill.com/rdj. The Article Publication Charges (APC’s) will be sponsored by DANS for the first three years of the journal’s publication. For further information on the technical aspects (including outsourcing) and other questions, please contact the Editorial Office at DANS.
